


Mermaid's Kiss

by Mel_Sanfo



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not Related, F/M, Little Mermaid Elements, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-03-31 01:46:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 27,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3959770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mel_Sanfo/pseuds/Mel_Sanfo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A curious mermaid witnesses a shipwreck at the North China Sea and against the warnings and laws of her people forbidding any interaction with humans she aids a drowning human to safety.</p>
<p>Mermaid AU. I suck at summaries, sorry. This is more of an H.C. Andersen version than the Disney version so be advised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mermaid's Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> This work is AU, obviously cuz mermaids HELLO, so please don't be too picky about the timeline and things. Also, I don't have a beta and English is not my first language so keep that in mind.
> 
> Thanks!

If there was something that all of the elders of her people could agree on regarding her it was that she was way too curious for her own good. She was born to be a scribe. But her thirst for knowledge and curiosity was something that didn’t go well with the secretive ways of her kind most of the time. To know you have to explore and exploring could lead to exposure, which was something that they could not afford. That was why the rules regarding the surface dwellers had been put into place, to protect the people of the deep.

Ignorance was not an option however and in order to protect themselves further they had to know what the risks to their civilization were so every few years a selected few individuals would be magically transformed and sent to the surface to live amongst the humans for predetermined periods of time. They were there to learn the ways of the surface people, to see their advances and gauge the evolution of the race as a whole. Those few would come back and scribe their findings, the newer generations would be taught of how the world of the surface was developing and warned, as they all were from an early age, that contact between the people of the deep and the surface dwellers was strictly forbidden.

 

This had been the way for thousands of years and it had ensured their survival. Everyone knew that the surface dwellers feared most things that were different from them and if given the chance they would hunt down to extinction the people that lived below the ocean’s caring blue.

 

The time for the choice of the new group of scribes had been close when it had happened, the moment that would change her fate forever. She’d been out in the open sea, where no surface dweller could spot her, when a storm had rolled in. She had breached the barrier between ocean and air wanting to see the way the lights came down from the sky followed by sound but then she’d seen the boat in the distance and had decided to flee to the depths to wait for the boat to pass.

 

What followed had made her falter in her retreat. It had unfolded like a nightmare before her eyes, an accident of unknown forces to her that had pretty much ripped the ship apart and even though she knew that she should have kept away, even though it had been drilled into her mind, that humans were nothing but dangerous savages, she had gone towards it instead of away from it. She had swum towards the sinking vessel to take a closer look.

 

And then she’d seen him.

 

There had been other bodies in the water but they held no light of life anymore, scattered carelessly like detached seaweed on the waves, so she had swum past them taking care not to touch them. But he, he was alive! He’d been struggling underwater to free himself from a piece of something that was attached to the sinking boat. His attempts seemed futile. She knew with certainty he was to die there, as she’d seen many of the creatures of the sea die, caught in a net without being able to breathe. A vice like grip had taken hold of her heart at the sight of him and without thinking about it she’d gone to him.

 

He’d seen her approaching form and had tried to backpedal, in fear, turning and struggling even more against the bind on his leg but she hadn’t given him time for much else. She knew that he wouldn’t survive much longer without in taking air and the bubbles he had expelled when he saw her meant that he had tried to scream in surprise which was an even bigger waste of the air he’d had. But she could only imagine what she’d looked like to him in the deep and dark of night. Humans weren’t used to seeing people of the deep; he probably thought that she’d been a predator coming to get him so she didn’t hold his fear against him. When he’d turned back to see how much time he’d had before she reached him she was already there, a halo of blonde and sky blue swirling about her face as she gazed at his stunned face for a single moment before she’d grabbed his face with both hands, locking her lips securely over his mouth; when he’d tried to gasp/scream again she’d given him the air that she gained so easily underwater and he so desperately needed.

Strong hands had gripped the top of her arms in an attempt to dislodge her but clarity won out when his shocked brain realized what was truly happening, his grip relaxed and startled blue eyes locked on benevolent blue ones. When the exchange was done she had released him and a second later, with a flick of her powerful tail propelling her down, she had gotten to work untangling the strap of fabric that was wrapped around him from his flesh as quickly as she could. There had been a single second of acknowledgement on his part, a single look down at her but as she turned in the water once it was done the sudden freedom had him turning from her, kicking his legs and pushing for the surface with renewed vigor, not once looking back. She watched as he broke the surface, which was reassurance enough, before turning around and swimming away.

 

From afar she’d watched as his body had been taken from the water into what she thought was a life raft, though from below the waves the bottom of it looked nothing like she’d ever seen. She knew that she had broken many rules, not only had she been seen but she’d touched and given breath to a human! But she couldn’t have let him die, to just be another body in the water, not when he’d been fighting so valiantly to live.

 

She didn’t know why she did it, she couldn’t explain it, but she kept watch on the raft for days, even when another body littered the water and there was blood that called the sharks forth, she held vigil from afar. Then as the currents shifted she drew closer once more and guided it from below, as much as she could, into the current that would deliver it and its cargo to land. She wasn’t supposed to do it, she knew this well, but her curiosity won after all and she peeked, breaking the surface one early morning looking towards the shore. He was there, barely standing but there, still alive. She couldn’t help but smile a little before diving once more and going home.

 

Coming home, she realized she had missed the choice day for the scribes and was devastated. She was sure this time she would’ve been chosen to go above.

 

Having to wait for another chance it became her guilty little secret to go back to the surface and watch the beach where the raft had come to land. There were plenty of rocks along the shore to hide behind and sometimes, when she was feeling adventurous she’d explore the estuaries, sneaking up river while it was still deep enough for her to do so and taking quick peeks at the different world that the island provided before retreating back to sea. She came to think that delivering the raft here, saving the human, had served to grant her a private playground. Sure, she couldn’t explore the surface as a scribe could, yet, but she could still look at it from afar and learn by sight about things she’d learned back home. And oh, how she wanted to explore. Now she wanted to be a scribe even more!

 

It was during one of her trips to the island shore that she found the man again. She’d been a few meters out, hiding behind one of the rocks when she’d seen him, wading out to sea before diving, trying to take on the waves and swim out. To where? She had to wonder. There was nothing nearby, not for miles, too many miles for him to have a real destination or at least a viable one to get to by swimming to it. Going into the deep she watched his progress, which wasn’t much with the crashing waves, until he was further out in the ocean. She followed, stealthily, far enough to not be seen by him but close enough to observe. Unknown to the man it wasn’t just her attention that he had gathered. The attention garnered wasn’t the kind that he would’ve wanted though and she was forced to intercede once more on his behalf, delivering a sharp tail whap to the nose of a hungry great white shark before rushing to the surface and grabbing onto the man’s leg, hauling him with ease (and speed) towards a rock nearby, which he climbed quickly in fear.

 

Danger averted, after several shots of her powerful tail to a shark that didn’t appreciate its cancelled meal, she swam towards the rock and circled it many times, watching from below at the man that was crouched there, looking into the water. It wasn’t clear enough for a good view but she was sure that in the light of day he could see the green and blue of her tail and the yellow of her hair. Since this was her private playground and there were no elders here, nor others of her people, she took a risk and swimming a few feet away from the rock she poked her head out of the water, looking up at him, her head tilted to the side when he let out a yell of surprise and fell from his crouch and onto his butt.

 

“Whoa…”

 

She kept herself in place, the water reaching her chin, as she looked at him, her blue eyes taking him in up close in the light of day for the first time. He would’ve made a handsome merman, she thought to herself, if he’d had shorter hair and a face with fewer whiskers. His eyes were nice though, a deep blue like the sea she called home, looking just as surprised as they’d done that first night. His skin was sun kissed in a way that she’d never achieve, making the pearlescent sheen of her own skin feel out of place compared to his. He drew closer to the edge of the rock, on his hands and knees, to take a better look and she moved away a little, a frown adorning her features.

 

“No, wait! Please!” he called lifting one of his hands before sitting back on his heels and lifting both for her inspection, as if to show he wasn’t armed and therefore not a threat to her. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just… just don’t leave, ok?”

 

She eyed him questioningly before moving a few inches closer to the rock, still unsure of the interaction. Sure, she could get away from here faster than he could get to her by reaching out or jumping in the water after her but she had no desire to show her hand just yet.

 

“It’s you isn’t it?” he asked after taking a moment to study her features “You’re the same one, aren’t you? You saved me from drowning.” He laughed in a depreciating way then and it caused her to tilt her head again at the sound “I thought I had gone nuts. That I hallucinated from lack of oxygen or hitting my head or something but you’re here! I mean, you’re real. You’re here.” His smile was blinding as he motioned towards her with one of his hands before he frowned, noticing something was wrong. “Can…can you understand me? Do you know what I’m saying? Can you talk?”

 

Blinking several times at him she pressed her naturally pink lips together considering her options. Should she admit that she could understand him and actually have a conversation with a human?? Oh the possibilities! This was SO outside the rules that she couldn’t even put it into words! The elders were going to banish her to the cold waters of Antarctica if they ever found out! Then again, this was her private playground…why shouldn’t she learn new things?

 

“Yes.” She replied with a nod “To all questions. Yes, I am the one that saved you. Yes, I can understand you. Yes, I know what you are saying and yes, I can talk. And you should not be out in the water, not when there are sharks looking to feed. What were you thinking?”

 

“Sh..sharks?” He asked with a frown looking out at the water as if just by mentioning it and trying to look for it he’d be able to see it.

 

“Just the one, this time, and it is gone now but you need to go back to land before more come. There are many that hunt nearby. I might not be there to protect you next time.”

 

“You? It was you that pulled me over here?”

 

She nodded once.

 

“You need to go back to land. Give me a moment.” She offered before turning around and diving without another word, her tail breaking the surface before she disappeared into the deep. She searched a few minutes for threats; finding none she went back to the rock and resurfaced, closer than she’d been before. He’d been leaning forward looking into the water, searching for her, so when she came up from below he barely had time to pull back before they bumped heads. “Jump in. There is no more danger now.”

 

There was a moment of hesitation on his part before he stood, at his full height and then jumped into the water with her, landing a few feet away. When he resurfaced she’d turned to be face to face with him, the wonder on his face was evident.

 

“Y-you…you have a… you really are a… a…I thought your kind was extinct…”

 

“Yes.” She said with a curt nod “It’s for our protection that your people don’t know better. Now swim.”

 

She didn’t have to tell him twice, he started swimming towards shore immediately and she followed a bit behind keeping an eye out in case she had missed something and it, in turn, decided to follow them. After all sharks were sneaky like that... He only stopped and turned to look back at her once he was standing, feet firmly planted on the shore, with the water lapping at his legs. His clothes were soaked and sticking to his body, his longish hair plastered to his face. She was only a few feet away, deeper in the water, with it lapping at her shoulders furiously, tail curled under herself a bit so it wouldn’t drag on the shoreline.

 

“Why did you do it?” she asked suddenly.

 

“Do what?”

 

“Swim out.” She explained

 

“I need to leave this place.” He said at once “I need to get back home.”

 

“I would not try it again. There is nothing for miles.” She said with a sad expression shaking her head. “You would not make it out in the open sea.”

 

“You could help me make it.” He said at once. “You and Me? Working together? We could make it!”

 

“No.” she said with another shake of her head and there was no room for argument in the statement. “Even if I were to take you out into the sea it’d be too dangerous. It would tire me and I would not be able to defend us if needed. Not to mention…” she was tempted to explain how it would be punishable for her to be in contact with a human. She didn’t even want to imagine what the elders would do to her if they found out! And he was a human so no matter how thankful he was that she’d saved him he probably wouldn’t care about her fate if she was caught. “It’s risky, way too risky.” She explained.

 

Defeated he tilted his head skyward, letting out a drawn out groan that resonated with frustration while running his hands through his hair. She followed his gaze, turning her head this way and that as if to try and understand why he was doing it. She really didn’t see anything of interest up there in the other blue so she turned her attention back to him only to find him looking at her once more, although he looked incredibly sad there was a twinkle of amusement on his eyes.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

“Name?”

 

“Yeah, your name.” he replied with a chuckle “You know? What other people can call you? Like, my name is Oliver. What’s yours?”

 

“I don’t have one.” She admitted looking thoughtful.

 

“You don’t have one? Seriously? What do I call you then?”

 

“You don’t need to call me anything.” There was confusion twinging her voice. “I am right here.” She replied quickly “Do surface dwellers name everything?”

 

“Surface dwellers.” He repeated

 

“Humans.” She explained with a wave of her hand which she then used to brush her blonde hair aside, over her shoulder. “Is it like a tradition? Or more of a compulsion? Oh no. Do you need to name something so it’s yours? Because if that’s the case then you cannot name me! I am not yours. I am not anyone’s…”

 

“Whoa, whoa, hey…OK, all right… no need to panic.” He said with a huff of a laugh. “It is like a tradition I guess, people have names, it’s just the way ‘surface dwellers’ address one another.” He explained “It’s not about ownership, its more about…identity.” He admitted.

 

“I’m not a surface dweller so why would I need one?” she asked curiously

 

He laughed again then.

 

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with a freaking mermaid! I really must be going insane.” He muttered to himself, lifting his arms over his head, groaning again before letting his arms fall down to his sides. “It’d be nice to have something to call you if we’re going to talk ever again.”

 

“That whole name thing makes no sense to me.” She admitted while looking puzzled.

 

“How about I mention a few and see if you like any of them? I can call you whatever you like.” he offered crouching down in the water.

 

“No.” she replied at once “The water is cold. Humans can get sick from it. You should go back to land, now, while there’s still light left and you can dry off.”

 

“And where will you go?” he asked

 

“Home.” She answered simply

 

“Where is that? Is it close? Are you going to come back?”

 

All the questions seemed to bubble out of him then and she tilted her head to the side again. She could feel the reluctance on his part to see her leave and it made her heart churn, even if she didn’t understand why. She didn’t know him, they were strangers in the biggest of senses yet he seemed to trust her. Then again having someone save your life does give them perks.

 

“I cannot tell you where it is, you wouldn’t be able to find it even if I did. It is not close but not far either. And yes, I will come back. Two days, I will be at this beach, I’ll watch for you.” She answered and then gave in, for his sake. “Maybe by then you will have your list of names and I will choose one so you’ll have something to call me.”

 

“All right.” He said nodding his head “I’ll be here.” He added bitterly

 

“I am sorry, Oliver.” She admitted, turning her body she allowed the choppy water to sway her then swam out till it was deep enough for her to dive down, a flap of her tail towards shore was her good bye to her new acquaintance.

 

She did come back after the two days but she didn’t find him, she waited till night fell but she didn’t see him. He didn’t show. She went home once more with a heavy heart and worry lacing her thoughts. She went back to the beach a few days later but still no Oliver. It was on her third attempt a few days later, close to sundown, when she found him again.

 

“There you are!” He said, sounding so happy that she let the heaviness in her heart go.

 

He explained that he’d found someone on the island, someone that had hurt him but after the fact had taken him under his wing so to speak

 

“You cannot tell him about me.” She had said at once “No one can know about me or my people, Oliver.” It was almost a desperate plea on her part.

 

“No, no, of course not.” He said shaking his head “I won’t tell anyone. I promise. Not that anyone would believe me anyways, to be completely honest.”

 

During that particular conversation he tried to give her two names, Andrea and Amy. She had scrunched up her nose at both of them, not liking them one bit. They sounded wrong to her somehow.

 

“I’ll try again next time.” He offered with a crooked smile.

 

“Two days?” she asked

 

“Two days. I’ll meet you here, at sundown.” He agreed nodding.

 

As they agreed two days later she was back at the beach. She had never been so glad to have explored the island’s shore during the days that she didn’t meet him as she was that night. He was hurt and even though that was obvious he had come to her. Or at least tried to, he hadn’t made it far into shore, just up to his legs before she’d seen him fall into the water. She had gone as far up to shore as she’d ever done, keeping just enough of her body in the water to be able to propel her and his wounded body back into the sea. It took effort and some serious maneuvering but she managed to grab him around the chest, with one of her arms safely tucked under his arms, and get them moving away from the shore. Away from the danger.

She had gone as far up to shore as she’d ever done, keeping just enough of her body in the water to be able to propel her and his wounded body back into the sea. It took effort and some serious maneuvering but she managed to grab him around the chest, with one of her arms safely tucked under his arms, and get them moving away from the shore. Away from the danger.

 

It was a good thing that he had passed out from his pain, that way he couldn’t register more of it in his body. The salt water on wounds was never a good feeling and she had to work fast before she attracted the attention of predators. She took him to a cavern by the water that she had discovered on one of her first trips to the island and laid him out on the sheet of rock that wasn’t under the constant attack of the tide.

 

Then she waited…

 

When he came to with a gasp of fear and tried to sit up it was her hand on his shoulder that kept him where he was. Night had already fallen, moonlight their only source of scarce light.

 

“Don’t get up.” She urged with a shake of her head, grimacing at the stain of red blood on his shirt. “Oliver…what happened to you? I thought you said the man you met was not your enemy. Did he hurt you again?”

 

It took him a few deep painful breaths to calm down, for her words and her presence to register but once it did he relaxed into the cold surface with a sigh.

 

“No.” he groaned turning his head to look at her “There’s more people here… On the other side of the island.” He explained, his eyes were a bit glazed from the pain. “Yao Fei rescued me.”

 

“He didn’t do too good of a job!” she quipped, a grimace like smile adorning his features at her outburst.

 

“He got me out. Left me somewhere he considered safe to drive them away from me. It wasn’t as safe as he thought.”

 

This was the closest they’d been, face to face, since the night she’d saved him from the shipwreck and it surprised her how at ease she was at the closeness. He was a human and she was a mermaid, being this close to him shouldn’t have been easy for her but she couldn’t find it in her to fear him as she was supposed to. Her position, with one of her hands on his shoulder and the other on the slab of stone by his chest, left only her tail in the ocean, her upper body out of the water for the first time in his presence. Her hair hung down to her waist, over her breasts and her back, the moon light making the blue streaks in her hair look a darker shade of blue than they truly were.

 

“What happened?” she asked

 

He told her of the men on the other side of the island in between pained breaths. Of how they had found him while he and Yao Fei had been hunting and how they had tried to get information from him by methods of torture. These men, these type of humans, were the kind of humans that her people stayed away from. They were the reason that the interaction between the people of the deep and the surface dwellers was forbidden.

 

“Where did you bring me?” he asked after a moment having noticed his surroundings for the first time.

 

“It’s a cavern by the shore. Not far from the beach where we usually meet. I’m sure you could reach it by foot if necessary. I didn’t want to leave you there to be found by whomever. You should be safe here, for now, while you recover your strength.”

 

“You keep saving me, Brandi.” He chuckled.

 

“Brandi?” her voice sounded incredulous. “Is that even a real name?”

 

He laughed at that.

 

“Yeah, from what I’ve heard, it is.” He offered weakly. “I take it that’s a no?”

 

She shook her head at that and then submerged into the water, taking a moment to replenish herself before surfacing again, with the water at her neck and her hands holding the ledge of the stone.

 

“I really don’t see the point on this name thing.” She said again

 

“Well, it keeps my brain preoccupied from the pain right now.” He offered pushing himself to his elbows and lifting his shirt to see the damage on his body.  
The sight revolted her. Her people were people of peace, scholars more than anything, she had never seen anything like it and her heart throbbed with pain at what he’d gone through.

 

“I don’t understand how some of your people can do that.” She murmured.

 

“Neither do I, Candi.” He admitted glancing her way with a quirked eyebrow.

 

“No.” she said at once causing him to groan in mock exasperation and lay back down.

 

“You know, for someone that doesn’t understand the importance of a name you sure are picky, Denise.”

 

“Oliver.” She warned with narrowed eyes. “I’m beginning to wonder if your list of names is even real. Denise? You cannot be serious. And some of them just sound plain silly. Candi, Denise, Brandi, all out of thin air. You should save your strength instead.” She offered at once with a deep sigh before she took the plunge into uncharted territory, using one of her hands she lifted the shirt to take a look at his wound again. She thought she was prepared for it but the heavy thudding of her heart told her that she might never be truly prepared for a sight like it again. “I am so sorry, Oliver.” She said “If I could I would swim you to safety, I would. Please know that.”

 

“Hey.” His voice was soft as he spoke and it surprised her when she felt his hand close around the one that was lifting the fabric away from his tanned skin; his touch was warm and a bit tentative, as if he wasn’t sure she’d be spooked by it. “I know you’d help me if you could. You’ve proven that to me more times than I can count.”

 

“I wish I could. I really do. I don’t like seeing you hurt.” She admitted “But with the dangers of the ocean, with you wounded and me tired?” she shook her head “The odds of you reaching any destination intact are relatively none.”

 

“I’m beginning to wonder about my odds ON the island.” He offered while giving her hand a soft squeeze before helping her lower the piece of fabric back into place. “Then again, what are the odds of someone getting rescued from a freak accident in the middle of the ocean by a pretty mermaid?”

 

“Pretty?” she repeated curiously with a bit of a snort. “You think I am pretty?”

 

“Well… Sure.” He replied using his non-bloodied hand to touch an errant blonde wave by her face. “I think you’re very pretty. Blonde hair and blue eyes, why wouldn’t I think you’re pretty?”

 

She laughed at that. Head back shoulders shaking crystal clear laughter that bounced on the walls of the cavern.

 

“Now I can truly see the amount of pain you’re in.” she offered.

 

“Why is that funny to you?” he asked looking quite confused, though one of the sides of his mouth was quirked up. Of course his Queen charm wouldn’t work on a mermaid.

 

“Oliver.” She said with a shake of her head “You are a human.” She explained “You have these.” She added, removing her hand from his in order to pat him on the leg, just below the knee. “I don’t.”

 

“That doesn’t mean you’re not pretty.” He defended his statement, sitting up a bit “Just because you have a tail doesn’t mean I can’t find you pretty and I’ll prove it to you. Come on, show me your tail.”

 

“Why?”

 

“So I can prove my point.” Was his answer, as if it was the most simple of requests in the world.

 

And sure he’d seen it before, she knew that, but there was a difference between having caught glimpses of it and it being shoved on his face, almost literally.

 

She didn’t move.

 

“Just, show me.” He said folding his legs below himself as best he could while in pain.

 

“You want to see my tail.” She repeated, it wasn’t a question but a statement.

 

“Yes.”

 

“This is ridiculous.” She muttered, going under for a few seconds before coming back up, using her tail underwater and her hands on the rock to push herself out completely.

 

For the first time in her life no part of her body was touching the ocean and it was…well, it was weird! There was no other way to explain it. She was used to the water, being under was so much more freeing and the sudden lack of option of fluidity made her movements a bit sluggish. Somehow she managed and shifted her body, propping herself up with her hands behind back, her upper body off of the rock, while her tail lay right in front of him. The widening of his eyes at her proximity would have been comical if she hadn’t felt so self-conscious! She had never, ever, in a million years thought that she’d do this with, or for, a human. Yet here she was, perched on a rock for his inspection.

 

“Holy shit.” It was a whisper of disbelief mixed with wonder.

 

She tensed up immediately, her tail flapping out of reflex, when she saw him reaching out to touch her with one of his hands. Her movement made him pause and he unglued her gaze from her tail to look at her eyes again.

 

“May I?”

 

“Are you serious? Why?” she asked.

 

This had to be the most bizarre interaction of her life!

 

“Well, I can honestly say I’ve never seen one of these before.” He answered leaving her speechless.

 

She nodded her head once.

 

He hesitated for a single heartbeat before he used the tip of his forefinger to touch her, the contact barely there and close to her fin.

 

“I remember it being green from that day you saved me from that shark.” He said in awe “Kinda like a hummingbird.”

 

“What’s a hummingbird?” she asked

 

“It’s a tiny bird, my sister was obsessed with them for a while a year or so ago. They have a long beak and are very fast, you can barely see their wings moving because they move them so fast to keep themselves hovering in place while they feed.” He explained absentmindedly moving his gaze over her tail and fin then backtracking and going up her body till he was able to meet her eyes again.

 

She had heard of some scribes speak of something called goosebumps. The people of the deep didn’t get goosebumps but if the way her scales seemed to be prickling at that moment was any indication she would’ve had them then due to his focused gaze. She wondered what she looked like to him, for what seemed the umpteenth time since their first meeting. From afar, and if only seen from the waist up, she could’ve passed as a human; Except she had groupings of green/blue scales that adorned her torso, covering her breasts, up to her neck and the top of her shoulders. Her gills hidden behind her ears were concealed by a bit of skin and her long hair.

 

“You’re beautiful.” It was a whisper that could’ve shattered the night.

 

“I don’t think humans are supposed to think that.” She answered.

 

“I guess I’m not like most humans.” He replied

 

Not knowing what to do with that answer she leaned forward enough to give his hand a small squeeze.

 

“Rest.” She said untangling her hand from his “I will make sure no sharks scented your wound. Though the trace in the water should be gone by now.”

 

“Hey. What about Emily?” he asked as she turned, making her pause.

 

“It’s pretty… but no.”

 

With that she pushed herself off the rock and rolled into the water with a small splash. Then she was gone.

 

When she came back a few minutes later, having gathered her wits again after his statement, which seemed to be on loop in her head, she found him asleep close to the ledge with his back to the moonlight.

 

“You are a very strange human.” She murmured.

 

When he left the cavern that morning the sky was still gray and they agreed that if he was ever hurt he’d try to make his way there instead of waiting for her in the open at the beach. It was a smart move on his part. They parted with very few words aside from agreeing to meet in a week instead of the usual two days. She wanted him to try and heal, regain his strength if possible, go back to the man called Yao Fei, if he was still alive, and get better.

Weeks passed with several meetings between them. Wounds started amounting on his part and with as little knowledge as she had, the scribes didn’t really cover how to take care of wounded humans, she tried to aid him tend them when needed be. They set up several places to meet, so they wouldn’t be caught in the same place every day as safety  
precautions. He told her that there were more people on the island aside from the men on the other side, a man that he trusted called Slade and a woman who turned out to be Yao Fei’s daughter was there too! Slade and Shado, his newly formed group after his first mentor had been taken from him. She was curious about that. How the group worked and their interactions with one another. He assured her that he hadn’t told them about her and that worked just fine, she didn’t want anyone knowing. But she’d never seen a female human, a live one anyways, up close and she had to keep herself from asking a billion questions about her.

Slade and Shado, his newly formed group after his first mentor had been taken from him. She was curious about that. How the group worked and their interactions with one another. He assured her that he hadn’t told them about her and that worked just fine, she didn’t want anyone knowing. But she’d never seen a female human, a live one anyways, up close and she had to keep herself from asking a billion questions about her.

 

With the arrival of these two allies into Oliver’s life there was less time to spend together, just the two of them, since he couldn’t just sneak out from camp whenever without drawing suspicion. He said that they were training him to survive and their main goal was to try and get out of the island which in turn meant they couldn’t see each other as much but she didn’t hold it against him. After all, her private playground wasn’t his home; he had a family and a female to go back to, she understood he needed to leave.

 

So she went back to exploring the shore of the island and upriver, when she could, she also took great care to go back home and stay there as much as possible so no one would be questioning her whereabouts when she wasn’t there. She spoke to her aunt, one of the elders, at length about the island and her discoveries off the shore. But being the wise older mermaid that she was her aunt knew that there was more about it all than the tale she was being given. She knew that something must have sparked her niece’s curiosity there and after promising that her talks of the island would be like any other talks, it would remain between them, she coaxed her niece into telling her the whole truth.

As it was to be expected she wasn’t thrilled of her niece’s interactions with the human, wary was the correct term, but having been a scribe herself she refused to be judgmental. Her niece had always been too curious for her own good but since the alternative was to alert the rest of the elders to her transgressions, and quite possibly losing her to banishment, she simply warned her to be cautious of the situation and then listened to all she had to share. She also made sure to put in her word to the other elders so that her niece would be chosen as a scribe on the next term, which was fast approaching, and be sent as far away from the island she seemed to love (and the human there) as possible.

 

It was during one of days that they were not supposed to meet that she saw him again. She wasn’t sure why she’d gone to the cavern; there was an unexplainable pull in her heart that made her go there. When she breached the surface she couldn’t help the gasp that spilled from her.

 

“Oliver..?”

 

He was sitting further back close to the stone wall, knees drawn up to his chest, arms resting on them, head hanging forward and his bloodied hands hanging off limply before him. He didn’t acknowledge her. The blood on his hands was a grotesque testament of the horrors of the island and she took a small amount of comfort when she realized the blood wasn’t his own.

 

“Oh, Oliver.” His name was a whisper on her lips as she pushed herself on the ledge of the rock and came to perch herself on it as close to sitting as she could, part of her tail still in the water.

 

Twisting at the waist she reached out and with trembling fingers, she touched his wrist. His reaction was instant. He scooted back, away from her, with a startled yell that sounded pained instead of angry, hitting his back against the wall. His blue eyes held a daze to them that she recognized as the daze of seeing, or doing, too much and when they locked with hers she felt her heart sinking. Something horrible had happened, something that had shaken him to the core and his mind wasn’t sure just yet how to recover. He looked at her for a single second before turning his bloodstained face away and fixing his sight on a faraway spot that showed nothing.

 

The situation deterred her for a moment before she tried again, reaching for him and taking a secure but gentle grasp of his wrist she pulled, using her body weight to make him move since he was so much bigger than she. He went reluctantly at first but followed her silent instruction after a few heartbeats, till she had him at the ledge with her. Using her hand on his shoulder she had him sit down, he folded his legs below himself mechanically and without saying a word, without looking at her. With the hand on his shoulder she leant him forward, using her free one to guide both of his into the water; when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to withdraw physically from her again she allowed her nimble fingers to brush and scrub at his skin with care, washing away the blood that stained his digits. She only wished she could’ve erased the hurtful memories as easily as the water was taking the blood away.

 

Once his hands were clean she turned her attention to his face. Reaching down she cupped a handful of water and then let it dribble from his hair down, her free hand wiping and cleaning his face from the spatter of red that was alien there. It was then that his blue eyes finally turned to her leaving her own without means to escape. They showed recognition before she used her fingers to close his eyelids so she could keep her work with as little stinging of salt water to his orbs as she could.

 

“Felicity.” He sighed

 

It was a word that she was sure she’d heard before but considering his current situation she doubted that it applied, so she said nothing. Instead, she kept cupping water up to his head and cleaning him till there was no blood on his face, hair or the whiskers on his face.

 

“There.” She spoke finally with one hand on his cheek “It’s all gone now.”

 

His eyes reopened then linking immediately with her own and they looked haunted, so very sad and fearful that her heart thumped harshly within her chest. Her thumb moved soothingly over his cheekbone, her palm prickling with his whiskers yet she didn’t remove her touch as if it could tether him to reality by simply being. There was nothing that she could say to make him feel better at this moment, she knew that, she was a smart mermaid and from all of the information gathered she deduced what had happened to her unlikely friend and it was a loss that could not be calmed by words. Not really. The loss of innocence in the most primal way was a hard blow to the mind and soul.

 

“Are you hurt?” she asked instead

 

He answered with a minute shake of his head before leaning towards her and placing his forehead on hers, breathing the same air and tangling one of his wet hands onto her hair at the nape of her neck, his fingers slipping and gripping the strands of her hair as if it was the most precious material that there ever was.

 

“Felicity.” He whispered again. “I think… that should be your name.”

 

“Still trying with that name thing?” she murmured teasingly.

 

It had the desired effect; she felt the slight shift of skin and muscle at his cheek under her hand as his lips quirked in a small smirk.

 

“This time it’s perfect.” He answered “You have that effect on me, you know? There’s just…something about you.” He pulled his head back to look at her without letting his grip at her nape go, his eyes gazing into her with laser-like focus and their faces separated by mere inches. “No matter what’s happened to me during the time I haven’t seen you; I only have to see you or talk to you and suddenly I’m… content. As happy as I can be in this fucked up place.” He admitted vehemently. “So, your name should be Felicity.”

 

“For what it’s worth...” She offered with a small smile gracing her features, her blue eyes sparkling. “I like it.”

 

She wasn’t sure why or how it happened but before she knew it their foreheads were touching again in silent comfort, then his nose brushed the side of hers in a caress that made her stomach do funny flips within her and finally … (finally!? Had she wanted this all along?) his lips brushed hers in a tender graze that made her breath catch in her throat.

 

It was as far from their first contact, the night of the shipwreck, as they could get. There was no secure latching of her mouth over his for a breath exchange, no, instead, his warm and slightly chapped lips brushed against hers experimentally, softly, as if testing her reaction before his eyes closed and hers followed suit. It was her reaction to the moment that surprised her the most. Yes, the people of the deep had extensive information about romantic interactions between surface dwellers but this was not something that she thought she’d ever experience herself. And the warmth spreading outwards from somewhere within her torso and flooding her with contentedness as she kissed him back, albeit a bit shyly, was strange but not unwanted. His hand at the nape of her neck, bunching her hair on his grip, kept her in place as he drank her in, taking small sips and nips from her lips as if she was a delicacy, her own hand still carefully placed on his cheek.

 

And she agreed with him then… the name she’d take for him would be Felicity if for no other reason than he too made her happy.

 

When he finally pulled back from her lips her eyes reopened slowly and she couldn’t help the instinctual reaction of her body to follow him, a smile pulled at his lips at that and he chuckled deep in his throat leaning to kiss her once more, a delicious touch of lips and a tentative slip of tongue against her bottom lip that made her gasp and almost jump out of her skin before his whole body went taut in alert and he shifted, removing his touch from her altogether in an instant as he crouched, shielding her from the entrance of the cave.

 

“Kid,” the voice was gravely and rough and it sent a shiver down her spine. “What the hell..?”

 

“Slade.”

 

Like the night of their acquaintance, it all happened in an instant. She saw the man come into view as he moved further into the cavern. With his black hair, a deeper tan than Oliver’s, huge arms and dark, dark eyes that were wide as he looked at her he was both alluring and terrifying to her. His clothes didn’t matter at that point, though she noticed they were on the dark side too, with swords (Yup, those were definitely sword hilts) strapped to his back and he held a weapon in his hand, pointed in her direction, something she thought one of the scribes had called a gun once.

 

“Slade, don’t!” Oliver exclaimed; it would’ve been a plea had it not held so much strength.

 

This was bad!

 

This was very very bad!

 

This was so bad she didn’t even have a word for how bad it was!

 

She gave it no second thought; she recognized the name as one of his allies so she knew that Oliver wouldn’t be in danger, though he’d have a lot of explaining to do. It was her own safety that worried her! Being seen by another surface dweller, a much less understanding one from the looks of it, was disastrous! Her aunt’s words for caution coming back to haunt her along with the fear that she was supposed to feel for all humans yet had never felt towards Oliver. Without any hesitation she dove off the rock into the water and with a powerful thrust of her tail she created a huge splash of water she used as a distraction to cover her retreat, as she went further into the deep, away from Oliver, Slade the intruder and further exposure.

 

Even though her heart was pained at the turn of events she knew there was no other way. She couldn’t go back. She risked too much, not only for herself but for her people as well. Just like he’d done the night they had met she swam away without looking back once.


	2. Mermaid's Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After she broke the rules of her people the curious mermaid has to face the consequences of her actions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will take this moment to thank everyone who has looked at this story. What started as a silly idea in my head turned into this monster and people seem to like it so YAY. I am truly floored with the reception this story has gotten. Thank you, everyone so very much.
> 
> OK, I will also say that apparently I am a liar with no sense of chapter building techniques. I will explain. I thought for sure that this would be a 2 part series but it is looking like a 3 part series instead. I know, I know everyone is so very upset. Sorry about that ;) 
> 
> When I started writing after the first post I realized I was actually writing the 3rd part to this story and I wanted to have a chapter that would explain Felicity's point of view of things that happened while she was in her human time (also explaining the timeline of when she was in her human form) without skipping right to the end of her changing back to her rightful mermaid form so I had to go back and come up with a second chapter so that I wouldn't be leaving everyone going 'huh? how did that happen?' I really hope it makes sense.
> 
> As per usual, I don't Arrow and I have no Beta.

A traitor.

That is what she was to her people now. Going back home without a single glance back had been the hardest thing that she’d ever done, or at least that’s what she thought as she’d swam towards the place that she felt safest. But that had all changed when she’d gotten there, because she’d had to come clean about the situation at hand. Another human had seen her, one that was not as understanding as Oliver was and that meant that exposure could threaten the entire race. The happenings of that day weren’t something that she could keep a secret. Even if it meant that she’d be shunned by her choices.

And she was.

Due to the fact that she was the niece to an elder she was given certain privileges as she awaited the judgement of the council of elders. She waited for days and nights, magically sealed in an underwater cavern as they came up with a fitting punishment for her, kept away from others like her to ensure that she’d be safe even if the others now feared or resented her; she believed it also served to keep the curious ones who didn’t believe humans to be complete savages from confirming their suspicions. For if she was going to talk about Slade, the one that had been ready to harm her she was also going to talk about Oliver, the human that had many opportunities to do so and never did. Her mind, her curiosity, and bloodline were taken into consideration throughout the councils gathering, and it made it difficult for them not to see her as an asset. The fact that she could be useful was the only thing that kept her from banishment.

When their decision was reached it was unlike anything she’d heard before.

The magical contract had addendums that had never been put into place...

She would be sent to the surface as a scribe, far far away from the island (and Oliver), because even though she had chosen a human over her own people her intelligence was far too valuable to let it go to waste; instead the elders planned to use her and once her awarded time was up she’d become a sequestered scribe, the first to exist for centuries. There were drastic measures to her punishment of course; the harshest had left with dashed hopes and a broken heart.

She’d never be allowed to breach the surface of the water again for as long as she lived.

It had been decided that she would be magically altered, bound was the correct term, so that her body would react from bad to worse by getting close to the surface, the further up she went from the depths the more her body would shut down until there was no life left within her. When the sun set on the last day of her sojourn of the surface and she submerged into the water it would mark her return to the depths, effectively (magically) sealing her from the world above and the beginning of her life as a hermit scribe. She’d never see land again.

On top of it all she was to study technology, a job that would keep her mostly indoors and away from the exploring that she yearned to do up in the surface. She’d learn all that there was to know about the updates on the field and then document the advances found in that particular area of knowledge from the humans. Her findings would serve only as theory for the people of the deep, the impossibility of usage of electronics for a life led underwater one of the biggest exercises on futility she’d ever heard of. Sure, they were allowing her the dream of being a scribe and going to the surface, they were also clipping her wings while there.

The safety precautions would be set, as soon as she’d been prepared to integrate as a scribe, both the humans she’d come in contact with would be affected by her arrival to the surface. The magic used to change her would also serve to distort the memories of the two humans that could expose them. Her human, as they called Oliver since they refused to use such ‘savage’ notions as names, would not remember her until she was once more safely back in the sea. As a last minute addition to her contract the strictest elders had suggested that should she ever come in contact with the human she’d chosen over her own kind that human would have to choose her, as she had done him, in order to regain not only his memories but earn her freedom. Without his memories of her and the fact that she was being sent so far away from the island she knew that the odds of ever seeing Oliver again, and having him choose her above all others, was at best a huge impossibility.

With a broken heart she was relegated back to her cave to prepare for her time up in the land of humans.

It took months to prepare for her journey. Private sessions with other scribes, most of who treated her with disdain, going over the information that they’d already gathered from previous trips up top, till she was deemed ready to be moved to the surface. She was escorted by her aunt and two mermen up to the shore of a city she’d only heard of once and magically changed closed to shore; she was aided out to land by a returning scribe, given clothing which she put on along with the documents that she knew she’d need in her new, short, life. Then she was left to find her way.

The first thing she did, after gathering her bearings and finding the place where she’d be living during her time as a human, was change the documents to her liking. It was an act of defiance that made her heart swell. Yes, this might have been her punishment and the elders had managed to make her time as a scribe serve as a prison to her but that didn’t mean that she would just take everything they threw her way laying down. No. She had a name she liked, a name that had been given to her by someone she cared for, a name that was perfect for her and this was her only chance to use it. So instead of settling for Evelyn Carmichael, as the print read on all documents given to her, she had gone to the forger and had convinced him to change everything to reflect that her name was Felicity. Felicity Smoak.

She was a mermaid with a plan, one that had bloomed within her a few weeks after her sentencing, and for that plan to work she had to have the knowledge to put it into effect. Her intellect, people of the deep were usually considered geniuses by human standards, was put to good use as she learned all she could about technology. First by reading every single book that she could get her hands on, spending copious amounts of time in the library, then using the computers that would be her bread and butter. Coding was like a natural born skill to her, thanks to her logical mind, she practiced and practiced till her now human hands could type no more and used her newly made programs to see how far she could get into secured databases, making it a game to get to information she wasn’t supposed to know or access and then retreating without leaving a trace of her virtual sneaking around. When the time came and she felt ready for it all the components to the puzzle she’d been building since before day one of her time as a scribe were in place Operation save Oliver from the island was a go; she had funneled funds from several different people, very bad people, through shell corporations and ghost bank accounts till she had enough resources to send a search and rescue party to the island but Oliver was not there to be found. There was no trace of him anywhere.

With a heavy heart she called back all efforts on that front, paying off the people that had taken on the job before deleting all traces that the mission had ever happened. It was hard but there was no other choice but to believe that the horrors of the island had finally taken her friend from her. She’d tried her best. Even if he didn’t remember her, even if he wouldn’t have understood why a perfect stranger had gone through all the trouble to get him back home, she remembered him. She’d told him that if she could get him out of that island she would. She had tried and she had failed.

That night was the first night that she cried as a human…

It wasn’t long before she found herself leading a very human life. She got a position that was below her credentials (even though those were fake and she really shouldn’t complain) as an IT department minion at Queen Consolidated, of all places. The company that for all intents and purposes would’ve belonged to her departed friend. It was a sense of loyalty to him that kept her there, even though she could do her manager’s job with her eyes closed and she was by far the best asset of her whole department which could’ve been exploited in more appropriate areas, then again she was also the only mermaid momentarily turned human in all of Starling City so she had that intellectual advantage going for her from the get go so comparing herself to those around her wasn’t really fair.

One night she had to go up to the executive offices to deliver some files and she found herself on the biggest of them all. After placing the file on the desk she spied a picture frame proudly displayed there that caught her attention and made her heart thump harshly against her ribcage. There in the picture was her Oliver along with an older man, that based on the resemblance, she gathered was his father. In it Oliver was younger looking, he was without his trademark whiskers…beard, she knew now that it was called a beard, and had an arrogant look on his face that would’ve made the best of them recoil a bit. But it was him and she couldn’t help the inward smile that it caused. She was tempted to make a copy of it but refrained, there was really no point to it.

“You were cute.” Her voice caught in her throat at the past tense of the statement, as it was the first time she had said it out loud, making the sound come out as ‘You’re’ instead. The first time saying things out loud was always the hardest. “It’s too bad you’re, you know, dead. Which is, obviously, a lot worse for you than it is for me.” For a moment she felt like she should apologize, tell the picture that she had tried to help him after all but again there was no point to it so she didn’t. Straightening up she placed her hands on her hips and sighed “I really need to learn to stop talking to myself…” With that she left the office without a backward glance.

Years later, half her allotted time as a human, Felicity was at work when the news broke. Oliver Queen was alive! The Queen scion had been found by fishermen in an island on the North China sea, the same island she’d delivered him to, the same island that she’d seen him last, the island that she’d had a team search at the beginning of her time as a human… A search that had come up empty! She’d had such mixed emotions! She was happy that he was alive, happy that he was back home as she knew that he wanted more than anything but she was also angry because she had searched for him and he had NOT been there! She was frustrated at the possibility that she’d been had by the team she’d appointed to that particular job. Had she been lied to?! And even if she had been lied to, did it matter? He was home now. He was back to his family and the woman in the picture.

Oliver Queen was back, every news station, newspaper and blog was covering it and Felicity was happy for her friend even if he didn’t know he had one in her.

QC employed thousands of people, hundreds alone in their Starling City office, which she liked as it gave her a sense of anonymity. She was an IT girl, nothing special, easily dismissible, so it was a surprise when a few weeks after the big reveal of his return she came face to face with the man she’d believed she’d never see again. A throat was cleared at the entrance of her cubicle followed by a voice she would’ve recognized anywhere…

“Felicity Smoak? Hi, I’m Oliver Queen.”

She’d been chewing on a red pen as she turned her chair and she almost dropped it when her mouth popped open at the surprise of seeing him. It was Oliver all right but he looked so different now! He was still tall, still tanned but his hair was shorter, cut in a much flattering way, his eyes were just as blue but held darkness lurking behind them and the face that she’d known could be so expressive was now a mask of aloofness. As if nothing could get to him.

“Of course, I know who you are.” _You just don’t remember me_ “You’re Mister Queen.”

“No. Mister Queen was my father.” The statement was immediate and it made her heart churn.

“Right but he’s dead. I mean he drowned. But you didn’t.” _Thanks to me_ “Which means you could come down to the IT department and listen to me…babble.” Good Google and she thought her ‘don’t name me if it means you’ll own me’ babble had been bad! “Which will end in 3…2…1…”

After that it was a whirlwind of bad excuses and a pointed look of disbelief on her part. A latte? REALLY?! He really couldn’t come up with a convincing lie to save his life! Even as a mermaid she would’ve recognized bullet holes on that laptop case! It was truly amazing that she didn’t babble more in his presence when all she could think of was how glad she was to see him alive, home and in one piece. Even if his eyes, those blue eyes that she’d grown so fond of, held no warmth towards her now and they left her with a sense of loss that cut straight to her soul.

The elders had done a great job at her punishment, she realized. It was the proverbial cherry on top of the Sunday in case she ever saw the human that they deemed hers in the form of strategic and sporadic jabs at her heart. They’d make sure that when she went back her spirit would be broken enough that she wouldn’t seek another life but the sequestered life appointed to her.

Every single time after that she wished she could tell him the truth but she had no idea what the repercussions would be if she did. She feared what the elders could do, not to her, if they found out that she shared the information of their acquaintance. Instead she kept her memories of island Oliver to herself safely in a box within her mind and kept an eye out for the here and now Oliver. A man that was much different than the boy that had kissed her in a cavern on the shore of Purgatory.

It didn’t take long before he was coming to her with different tasks for her to do and even worse excuses than that first day. After the shot up lap top came the ‘friend’ he wanted to get back in touch with…and after that it was a black arrow for his buddy who loved archery OH so very much, then a scavenger hunt with a security FOB of military grade that led mistakenly (of course) to information about robberies of armored trucks. And then her favorite!

At the very top, number one, on her ‘Oliver Queen’s not so fabulous excuses’ list… the hang over cure in the syringe incident.

“I ran out of sports bottles.”

How she had managed to not laugh in his face at that one she still had no idea.

Of course through all that time she’d been a very busy girl when she wasn’t handling one of Oliver’s puzzles, dealing with the hush-hush assignment from Mr. Steele; Digging into some discrepancies regarding an investment done by none other than Mrs. Queen. Mrs. Steele? Mrs. Queen-Steele? Ice demeanor extraordinaire Moira Queen, whatever last name she was going by, mother of none other than Oliver himself. As if that was not enough then the little book of names, holding a similar list to that used by the notorious Starling City’s very own vigilante in green, came into her possession and then Walter mysteriously disappeared.   

There was really only one person that she could trust regarding the book, the whole thing had her far more on edge than it should but she couldn’t very well leave it alone. Walter Steele had been nice to her, even though she was an awkward human that babbled (mermaid’s thought process was way faster than humans which meant sometimes things just came out without being filtered) and had trusted her with the task to figure out what was going on before he was taken/killed/only google knows what. She couldn’t trust anyone else. She needed Oliver.

So she’d met him in a grey area, Not QC, not the Queen’s castle (mansion technically but it was a damn castle from what she’d seen), somewhere else where they stood in somewhat even ground and she had showed him. He’d tried his charm on her again to put her at ease but the playboy routine wasn’t something that she fell for, not even when he’d promised her that fantastic bottle of red wine and bopped her on the shoulder with his fore finger, as if she was a five year old being promised ice cream if she behaved at the store. And for the record, he might have thought he did, but he didn’t have ‘one of those faces’. Nope. Once she’d overlooked his rocky start she’d come clean regarding the book and his reaction, though controlled tightly, had been evident to her. She hated hurting him so.

After she’d found the vigilante bleeding on the backseat of her car her life had changed into bizarre world thanks to Oliver Queen once more. It all really snowballed from there. Apparently she’d been an honorary member of his team, with all the puzzles she helped solve, now she was fully integrated until they found Walter and after that she’d go back to the life that she had before. Isolation was better than getting attached to humans that she’d have to leave in just a few years. That’s why she liked her little cubicle and the server room at QC, she didn’t have to overly interact with anyone. But of course Oliver Queen and his bodyguard with the tree trunk arms could come and go from there as they pleased and now she was in their team, on their side; their very own IT/hacker expert. She had to stick to the plan, she knew that. Help them find Walter, if he was still alive, then leave their team and be more like how she’d been in the beginning. Still aid but from afar. Of course, deep down she knew that there was no way that she’d be able to tear herself away. The little band of misfits that they formed was more of a family than she’d ever known.

 Mr. Diggle became Digg or just John; he attempted to train in self-defense and did so with the patience of a saint even though her coordination left much to be desired of, not that she could tell him it was the fact that she’d only had legs instead of a tail for about two and a half years. And Oliver, her dear Oliver, was just Oliver to her. Not Ollie, the playboy with the appropriate nickname of a 3 year old, not Mr. Queen the scion and heir to more money than could be counted, not the vigilante even though that particular part of him was rather well engrained in him now. She could see the difference between the boy she’d known and the man he’d become. Five years had done quite a number on him and her heart ached due to it.

There was a revolving door of bad people (and girls in Oliver’s case) that kept them busy. The longer she stayed with the team the more she tried to tell herself that she WOULD leave once they found Walter. She would! Of course, she didn’t. After Oliver made it clear that Laurel would always be a priority, even surpassing his promise to John to help him with Deadshot, there was a huge blow up between the two men. And then it was off to the illegal casino for Felicity after that. Just Oliver and Felicity, a genius (not so much) plan that almost put a bullet in her brain but who’s really keeping score? Felicity tried to play peacemaker between the men but it took Oliver groveling to get the job done and for John to come back. She stayed and they learned about the betrayal by Starling’s elite, Oliver’s mom and Tommy’s dad included, towards not only The Glades but quite possibly Oliver’s father (a fact later confirmed); That along with the upcoming culling of that part of the city, so that it could be rebuilt without the ‘disease’ that birthed there and with the dark archer still out there it was too much. It was sickening and pulled the team to spreading themselves almost a bit too thin. If she had thought that the men who had tortured Oliver on the island had been bad she had no words for the men and women who condoned and supported the attack on those people less fortunate on their city.  

It should have waved all warning flags available in her brain to her that she called it ‘their’ city…

It was madness; all of it. Diggle had offered to go with Oliver to face off the dark archer while Felicity had explained that if he wasn’t leaving she wasn’t either, probably not the smartest move on her part, but they had all decided to fight for the city.  When the dust settled 503 people were gone, Oliver had lost his best friend, Diggle was hurt and Felicity herself had a few scratches and bruises from being on the basement of Verdant when the second device had been activated. Sure, one of them had not been used but the feeling of failure was palpable. Just like she had failed Oliver when she had that search party sent to the island she had failed at protecting the city. Damn contingency plans of bad guys with the business savvy mental power to know the importance of redundancy.

After allowing Oliver time to lick his wounds in the privacy of his own private hell they’d gone to get him back when his family needed him the most. QC needed him, his sister needed him, and Felicity knew the city still needed him. He didn’t care about the last part of that equation though. He wanted to do what was best for people of Starling without taking up the hood again and even though she understood him she knew that his sabbatical would be just that, it wouldn’t be permanent.

She couldn’t help but feel slightly nostalgic being in the island. She’d never gotten to explore it with legs before but of course when she had the chance he’d had to save her from a land mine. She made up her mind then. When it was time to go home to become a sequestered scribe she’d stop in Lian Yu first and barring any other encounters with landmines she’d explore it for a day before having to go back to the sea. It’d be like going full circle for her.

Now that they had brought him back to Starling the pang of both contentedness at being far from her home and sadness that she was away from home hit her at once. She knew, logically, she was technically in the wrong for helping Oliver when she had but deep in her heart she also knew she’d done the right thing so the thought of home was bittersweet. Her home below the sea would be turned into a prison when she returned and in land she had no real home. Home was an abstract to her. An ideal. A dream.

Things were rocky at best for the team. They had to deal with the attempted hostile takeover which brought Isabel Rochev into their lives, a woman who Felicity recognized immediately as a Siren scribe. Sirens, like mermaids, came from the sea and had similar traditions but where the people of the deep were peaceful and craved knowledge above all Sirens were cunning and ruthless in their pursuit of power. They believed that the surface people harmed the ocean too much and had to be dealt with, they did that by infiltrating their population and gaining access to their assets by whatever means necessary. It was a common mistake to think Sirens and mermaids were the same but to the mermaids the Sirens were like that odd cousin several times removed that was not only the black sheep of the family from all directions but also hung around the dying relatives hoping for scraps when the end was near and the ink on wills was still drying. To the Sirens the people of the deep were the delusional hippie aunt that spoke of peace and understanding the differences between men and merkind to anyone who would listen without actually getting any results. Needless to say Felicity disliked Ms. Rochev immediately.

The surprises for the fantastic three just kept on piling up too…

It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise that a company like Stellmoor had gotten interested in Queen Consolidated after the Undertaking, with Moira’s involvement on the whole thing and the shares dropping in price like flies they were like sharks smelling blood in the water. It shouldn’t have been surprising to her that Oliver wasn’t completely forth coming about his time on the island either but when an ex-girlfriend, who was the sister of the woman you claimed to love, comes back from the dead as a vigilante that lie by omission bubble kinda goes away really fast.

The fact that the memory loss imposed magically by the elders made it seem that during those five years on the island nothing good had happened had left her speechless. She would’ve done anything to be able to refresh his memory then so he would’ve had at least a few memories of the comfort that she’d given him in the past, just for his mental sake, but that was not to be. He believed nothing good had come from that island and she couldn’t correct him, for his own safety.

Felicity shouldn’t have been surprised that Ms. Rochev managed to bring out the playboy in Oliver, seducing him during their business trip (not quite real business trip) to Russia. Seduction was one of the oldest tricks on a Siren’s book.

In the end there were a lot of things that she should’ve seen coming, she was a genius after all, but what really surprised her was her reaction to it all. It was a sort of harsh cold puncture in her heart that she couldn’t explain and the more she used her logical mind to come up with an explanation as to why he would’ve chosen Isabel Rochev instead of any other woman in the country of Russia the more that void of numbness spread in her heart. Just, why? Why her? Why?

What happened in Russia most definitely did not stay in Russia, it haunted Felicity’s mind relentlessly and her question managed to bubble up one day; she couldn’t help herself, she really wanted to understand. His explanation left so much to be desired of it wasn’t even funny. The whole ‘It just happened, it didn’t mean anything’ and ‘because of the life I lead…’ speech was up there in the bad excuses list with ‘My coffee shop is in a bad neighborhood’. And right then she understood what the amalgam of feelings in her heart was. The coldness? The burning frustration? The deep seeded disappointment? They all added together to give a single total. It was heartbreak. She didn’t know when it had happened, at the island or after, but she’d somehow managed to mess things up even more for herself and had fallen in love with Oliver Queen! And now she was seeing the consequences of that by feeling things that were not supposed to be broached by her kind, things like heartbreak.

Again, like all things Oliver, the heartbreak she felt had to be put in the Oliver box in her head because there was so much happening at once. Moira Queen’s trial was happening, along with Oliver managing to get 50% of the shares of QC thanks to Walter, plus people were getting dosed with Vertigo and no one knew how exactly. Digg was the catalyst. Good ol’ John Diggle, having fallen prey to the drug, with his brotherly hugs and his small smiles, she’d do anything for Digg. Which was how she’d found herself on the van that was supposed to dispense flu vaccines but was expanding the drugs reach unwittingly and a few hours later at QC, as a hostage, to the madman drug dealer with a plan, the Count himself.

That was the night that Oliver killed again… And she hated the fact that she’d put him in that position to begin with. When she said she was sorry she meant it for so much more than just that night…

And then there was Barry Allen. Barry, sweet, awkward, kind, smart Barry who seemed to like her and could not only keep up with her mentally but had almost the same rambling tendencies she did. Barry; the young man who would’ve made a perfect merman due to his lean physique and his thirst for knowledge. If humans could change into merfolk he would’ve been the perfect choice. Oliver didn’t like him much at first and it only got worse after Felicity had to expose Oliver’s identity in order to save his life. She didn’t regret having to make that choice, since it kept him alive, but he was less than thrilled. Lightning happened then as well as her trips to Central City.

When she came back from Central she decided that her life, thanks to Oliver Queen, wasn’t snowballing anymore, it was an honest to God avalanche with no way to stop it. There were secrets that she uncovered for him, more heart ache, disappointment, a healthy dose of self-doubt and even her very own bullet wound. It was a heady cocktail that she wasn’t interested in ordering again at the bar called life. For the first time in her time as a human she was glad that her time in the surface would be coming to an end soon. 

Add a super serum via an old friend turned foe and one of the men that scared Felicity the most in her life to the story and the recipe for disaster was now complete. Slade Wilson. Seeing Oliver as afraid as he was of this whole situation did nothing to aid Felicity’s own nervousness. She was glad that Slade couldn’t remember her. Slade who kidnapped Oliver’s sister. Slade who then murdered Oliver’s mother in front of them both. Slade. The man who was going to hold the city under siege for a vendetta. The man the team had to outwit so Oliver wouldn’t sacrifice himself just because he couldn’t see another way.

When it all happened it was fast. The plan was simple, make Slade think that Felicity was the woman that Oliver loved just to get her into position so she could inject him with the mirakuru cure. She was bait again and she wasn’t thrilled about that but it was a risk she was willing to take if it meant helping the team and saving the city, even if it put her in the crosshairs of a mad man that gave her what humans called the heevie jeevies. What she hadn’t expected was the way that Oliver had looked at her, the way that his blue eyes had shone in the darkness with so much feeling. It reminded her of the day in the cavern, the day of her first kiss, her only kiss and it decimated the walls she had worked so hard to construct around what was left of her heart.

“I love you…”

And there it was. Three words that she never thought he’d use, especially directed to her. Three words that made her heart both melt and expand with an incredible amount of hope and happiness only to implode it into a million pieces when it dawned on her, a split of a second after the shock, that this was part of the plan, even if he hadn’t told her how far he was going to take it.

“Do you understand?”

With the syringe secure in her grip she swallowed past the lump in her throat and used only one word to answer. She couldn’t have mustered anything else.

“Yes.”

Her fate was sealed with her acceptance. She knew it clear as day then. Oliver Queen, the human she’d chosen over her people, would never choose her back. For him it’d always be the Laurel’s, Sara’s, McKenna’s and Helena’s of the world. The non-awkward, non-babbly, long legged beauties of his world. It’d never be an outsider like her. And honestly it should’ve been freeing. To not have the uncertainty of will he/wont he hanging above her head every single second of every single day, but it only left her with an immeasurable amount of sadness and questions.

What if the elders were right? What if this pain was part of why humans and people of the deep were never meant to interact? What if the secrecy wasn’t just to keep the humans from exposing the existence of her kind? What if they were trying to spare merfolk like her this particular kind of branding pain? What if? What if?

She didn’t even run when the super powered goons came for her. She went quietly with them and held her tongue throughout the whole experience. Not even when Slade was on the phone with Oliver, threatening her with one of his swords did she utter a word. There was nothing that she could say; there was nothing she wanted to say to him or the man on the other side of the line for that matter. After the phone call was done she was in for one last surprise though. The man that made her flee to the depths had gotten into her space, studying her with his dark eye and smirked.

“I didn’t get to see you up close last time. I have to admit, I’m disappointed I don’t get to see your tail.” He said with his gravel like voice, using one of his hands to hold her chin. “Having a Siren by my side made me learn all kinds of different things. I learned all about the rules of your people. They are, after all, very similar to their distant cousins. They have many things in common. Contact with humans, when not on scribe duty, is highly forbidden. Exposure to the surface dwellers and all that, magic to alter memories so the secrets are kept. Oh yes. Someone was a very naughty fish a few years back.” He said grinning. “I didn’t remember you for a while, little fish, but then the mirakuru helped me remember, all of it. I take it he doesn’t remember you from before, does he?” his question made a shiver run down her spine. “I wonder…what will happen when I kill you and his memories are released? What will it do to him to have that kind of guilt?”

He’d stopped talking then, quite pleased with himself and the impending doom that he was sure was going to befall Oliver. Thankfully none of it came to pass. Slade was cured and though everyone was a little worse for wear no one on the team was badly hurt. Not physically anyway. Sara had gotten her and Laurel out of danger as soon as Slade was injected. With the tide turn in their favor the outcome was swift after that.

By the time they had taken their prisoner to the super max ARGUS prison on Lian Yu coming to the island felt like coming back to the home she’d thought lost. Her time as a human was coming to a close and there was nothing to be done to release her from her contract. Only Oliver had the power to free her. So with the sliver of her heart that was still intact, fueled by a mix of hope and desperation she broached the subject once again. Not quite leading but admitting that she’d believed his lie.

“You really sold it.” Her voice was soft and a small, forced, smile hung from her lips expecting his reply with both dread and a drop of hope.

“We both did.”

As the last shard of her heart cracked she forced herself to keep a neutral expression. This was the last nail in the coffin of her hope. No more sliver of light at the end of the tunnel of impossibilities. They really were unthinkable after all; he just would never know how true her words were or how sincerely she meant it.

“Let’s go home.”

What she didn’t share with the rest of the class was that she only had about two weeks before her time was up. She’d go back to Starling with the team, the city that she had grown to love, she’d set everything up so that the Arrow team would still function as flawlessly tech-wise as they could without their IT girl at hand. She’d bring forward the background workings she’d put into motion at the very beginning of her mission which would give Diggle access to an impressive amount of funds to keep the team afloat while Oliver got his company back, so that the Arrow didn’t have to cut back in saving the city.

Then, like the foam on a wave, she’d disappear into nothingness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Matty!


	3. Human's choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Felicity to return to the sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it! The final chapter! WOOOO!!! 
> 
> This chapter took WAY longer than I thought it'd take to write.  
> I'm pretty happy with it but I am sure that it'll have a gazillion typos because I didn't spend nearly enough time editing it. I wanted to get it posted. I'll probably review it and fix along the way.  
> Sorry about that.
> 
> Oh yeah, I was going to mention, the italics are mostly for when there's snippets of previous conversations that happened between Mermaid Felicity and Island Oliver. 
> 
> I hope its not too confusing!

It all happened because of a book.

In all truth there should’ve been nothing special about it. It was just a small white hard back book; the cover had a seascape on it along with a sunset and a big green fish tail coming out of the water as if waving to the viewer who seemed to be standing at the shore. The sight of it made an uncomfortable ripple of emotion go down his spine though he wasn’t sure why. It was the fact that the book even existed at Diggle’s home what drew his attention more than anything. While the man took a personal call, something to do with Lyla’s mission, Oliver had stood waiting in the living room, giving his friend and brother the space to deal with whatever it was he needed to take care of. The book in question was something he’d never imagined he’d see at Diggle’s, not that he spent an extraordinary amount of time there. But it was there, lying next to a gift bag with neutral yellow background and an array of colorful polka dots that just screamed Felicity. The card he spied dangling off the strap on the bag held her handwriting and a simple note.

‘This is for the Digglet and all other possible little Digglet’s to come! Love, Felicity.’

Of course his blonde partner would be thoughtful enough to leave a precious gift ready for a child yet to be born before she went back home. Leaving a piece of herself behind even though she wouldn’t be there to take part of the brighter future that awaited Diggle. But she wasn’t his partner anymore, was she? No. She’d broken the news that she was leaving the team and Starling altogether just a few days after Slade’s siege and he really couldn’t blame her. Had it really only been two days since she left? It felt like a lifetime. After everything that had happened with Slade and all other bad guys they’d faced together he was surprised that it had taken her logical mind so long to catch up with her and make her run for the hills.

He wasn’t going to stop her. He’d had the chance when she told them in the foundry. He hadn’t then and he wasn’t going to try to change her mind now. Why would he? He believed it was for the best. Really, he did. It was for the best. Maybe if he repeated it in his head enough times the knot on his stomach that he refused to acknowledge would loosen at some point.

She’d worked hard to get their systems up to date, changed the interface to make it more user friendly, code for Diggle and Oliver’s caveman ways friendly, and had taught them both how to work the tech to their advantage so they’d be able to do their work even if she wasn’t there. She’d even made a manual and left it in a secured external hard drive in case Laurel wanted to man the computers when Oliver and Diggle were both needed out in the field, now that the brunette knew of Oliver’s secret and all that jazz it could fall to her to take over the computers at some point.

Picking up the book he’d let his thumb touch the waves on the seascape, the whole scene looking eerily familiar to him but he couldn’t quite place seeing this book ever before. Opening the cover lid he paged through the whole thing, not really reading, catching a few words here and there but mostly looking at the pictures with interest, all of them looked extremely familiar but yet out of reach from his memory. He settled on thinking that he must have read the book to Thea when she was younger, at some point, but back then he could’ve been way too high or drunk to really remember anything with clarity.

“You’re not going to believe this.” John said coming back into the room, carrying a laptop.

Placing the book down on the coffee table once more Oliver turned to face his friend. It seemed that the book wasn’t the only thing that Felicity had left behind. The two men stood together watching the video that their friend had left for John Diggle.

“Hey John.” She started with a small smile on her face and a little wave. It didn’t make his heart thump. It didn’t. “I swear this is not one of those ‘if you’re watching this I’m dead’ kind of videos; Well, ok, technically it kinda is but it’s not because I’m dead. I can promise you I’m very much not dead or will be any time soon, save for a freak accident or something. I’m very much alive just not there with you guys anymore.”

Her babbling seemed to be in full force, her eyes looked sad though.

“Anyways, I made this video to give you a heads up. The night that we saved Oliver’s life, the first night I came to the foundry, you told me that he kept some of his blood tucked away for a rainy day and that it was pouring that night. Or something along those lines, there was so much going on that I can’t quote you. The point is I did the same, in my own way. Not with my blood, obviously but with funds. Before you guys met me I’d already dabbled in my hobby of preference for a while. John, I’m not proud to admit this but I have to do it so you’ll understand. I stole money from very bad people, amounts small enough that the discrepancies were never discovered or if they were they were also passed off as accounting errors. I did it mostly as practice, to get in and get out of highly monitored systems without being caught, perfecting my craft.”

Her eyes seemed far away for a second then cleared

“There was another reason too but that’s not important now. In the end having the experience doing it manually allowed me to create a program that could do the same without me having to monitor it. The code did it all on its own to great results. I’ve been using the ‘Hood’ program, named after a certain archer that went after the rich and gave to the poor, ever since I started working with Team Arrow, in case of rain.” She offered with a sad smile.

“And now, since it’s not only raining but pouring, it’s time that you have access to what it reaped. Thanks to the generosity of a lot of the people in Oliver’s list, and of this part I am actually proud because I figured it was poetic justice that it’d be their dirty money that kept our operation going in case that we ever needed it, there are a few million stashed away in several different untraceable accounts. Some are invested, some are collecting hefty amounts of interest in different banks around the world and some are fully liquidated ready to use; don’t worry, John, everything has been set up so that all taxes and other legalities are taken care of.”

“If anyone tries to take a closer look into it all that they’ll find is that you did some seriously good investment choices in your younger years and though the money was tied up for a long time, due to some legal inquiries and investigations that you passed with flying colors by the way, the funds will now be legally released to you. You will find all the information you need to access your brand new accounts in this laptop.”

“I want you to use the money to help Team Arrow so they can keep saving the city. I know you’ll tell Oliver about this, so please let him know that it wasn’t that I didn’t trust him with the task of receiving this money. With everything that happened with Slade I didn’t want to take the risk of those assets getting frozen too so you were the safer choice for everyone, Digg. There should be enough for him to try and save QC too, if he chooses to.”

She tilted her head in a pensive manner then still looking at the camera.

“When I first started gathering the money, before you and Oliver came into my life, I had planned to give it all away to different charities but now you can use it to help the city in another way too. So, before I forget I’ll let you know that since you got the money you’ve set up some serious recurrent generous donations to War veteran’s charities, two legged and four legged alike. I thought those would be causes that would go well with that big heart of yours.” She moved her arm as if to reach for a keyboard that was not visible and then stopped “Keep yourself and my hero’s safe, ok? Thank you, Digg, for everything.”

With that the video was over. Digg set the laptop on the coffee table then sat down heavily on the couch.

“I checked the accounts. Oliver, there are so many zero’s on those sums it could rival your former trust fund.”

Of course Felicity would find a way to save them all even after she’d left them. That was just such a Felicity thing to do.

The true heart of the team coming to its aid once more.

It took him a while to get tired enough to be able to sleep that night. After a heavy patrol and getting all of the left over energy out of his system on the salmon ladder, punishing his body with training to the point of exhaustion Oliver finally dropped to bed, after a quick shower, in the foundry’s tiny cot. The nightmares didn’t come that night, that night he dreamt of being underwater…

The dreams continued each night after that. They were too disjointed to make any sense of them and it irked him because it felt like it should be simple but it wasn’t. One time he’d been underwater, a nightmare that would find him on the wreckage of the gambit once more with something wrapped around his leg keeping him from swimming away to the surface. There was something there, approaching in the water, something alien to him, but before it could get close enough for him to see what it was he’d wake up in a cold sweat drawing big gulps of air into his lungs as if he’d truly been drowning.

Another time he’d been crouched on a rock, close to the shore of Lian Yu, looking down at the water, curiosity getting to him enough so he’d bent at the waist and gotten closer only to react just in time to pull away from the water and the mouth of a great white shark that had breached the surface to catch him.

Or his least favorite of all, though by far the least terrifying; he’d found himself on one of the shores of Lian Yu, looking out into the sea while his heart held tight to hope, an amount of that cherished feeling that the island was so good at destroying. Though he wasn’t sure exactly what he was hoping for. He knew he was waiting for something, something important, something that had him looking forward to that moment with everything he had, his whole heart set on that single moment in time. But that something never came. The feeling of disappointment and hurt woke him up that morning and the sense of loss was so acute, along with his recently developed headaches, that he needed some time to gather his stoic mask before facing the world.

He’d been standing in line at his favorite coffee shop which Felicity had introduced him to, and made HIM bring HER coffee each morning from when he was QC’s CEO after she’d established her whole ‘never getting you coffee rule’, when it happened. A sharp pain in his head made him reach for the table that was right next to him to steady himself, it was as if a sharp object had been jabbed into his skull. His vision tunneling at the pain

_“It’s you isn’t it? You’re the same one, aren’t you? You saved me from drowning.”_

_“Yes, I am the one that saved you...”_

That voice! He knew that voice! Who was that?!

“Hey… hey buddy.”

With a shake of his head Oliver tried to clear his mind, doing his best to focus on the person that was standing right in front of him now while ignoring the feeling of an icepick being shoved into his brain. It was Dan, he knew the guy as Felicity’s favorite barista. He was a short pudgy balding guy in his 40’s with a blinding smile who had a wife (Sheri) and three kids; he was the owner of the coffee shop who happened to have a soft spot for his blonde partner after she helped him enhance the shops website and so he always made sure she got the best and biggest chocolate chip loaded double chocolate muffin they had.

“You ok there? You’re looking a bit green around the gills.”

Gills…Green… That voice..! What the hell was going on in his head?!

“Fine… I’m fine.” His words were choked out at best and he cleared his throat swallowing repeatedly afterwards “Just a headache.” He added, choosing to sit on the empty chair attached to the table that had helped to hold him up.

“Ah. I gotcha. Don’t worry, big guy, I’ll get you something that’ll fix you right up. On the house.” The man offered and then he was gone.

Closing his eyes Oliver tried deep breaths to clear the pain in his head. If he could get to a state that was even remotely close to meditating he was sure that he’d be able to just push through it and ignore it, as he did most of the physical pain that he experienced during his night job.

_“What’s your name?”_

_“Name?”_

_“Yeah, your name. You know? What other people can call you? Like, my name is Oliver. What’s yours?”_

_“I don’t have one.”_

_“You don’t have one? Seriously? What do I call you then?”_

_“You don’t need to call me anything. I am right here… Do surface dwellers name everything?”_

_“Surface dwellers.”_

_“Humans. Is it like a tradition? Or more of a compulsion? Oh no. Do you need to name something so it’s yours? Because if that’s the case then you cannot name me! I am not yours! I am not anyone’s…”_

A cup appeared in front of him then in a to-go cup.

“Here. This’ll fix that hangover right up. You might wanna hit that pretzel cart two blocks away or something too, just to getcha going.”

All he was able to do was mumble something resembling a ‘thanks’ before grabbing the cup and leaving the shop on wobbly legs. The conversations going on his head felt known to him but not real. He was hearing it but not quite, as if his ears were full of cotton, far away but happening all at the same time. Like a background noise that he couldn’t stop.

He made his way to the foundry in a hurry, forgoing the patented ‘pretzel’ cure/advice that Dan had given him altogether. He’d downed the tea, at least he thought it was tea, by the time that he’d made it to Verdant and once in the basement of the club he’d searched through his supplies in a flurry of action. When he’d found the candle stored carefully in his belongings he didn’t hesitate, he’d picked up the lighter and sat down on the floor, lighting the wick and focusing on the flame.

Something wasn’t right…

At first there was nothing, only his breathing technique and the flame barely flickering in front of his eyes but he tried harder, letting himself go utterly still and his mind unravel, the pain started fading, slowly ebbing though stubbornly trying to remain. But if there was something that Oliver excelled at was being more stubborn than odds stacked against him so he tried to mentally push his pain away in order to gain clarity.

Without knowing he suddenly found himself in Lian Yu again… but he wasn’t dreaming and he most definitely wasn’t alone. It was like an out of body experience. He was standing at the shore that he recognized immediately as the one from his dream. His younger self, Ollie, was coming out of the woods looking watchful of his surroundings. The closer his younger version got to the shore the more Oliver noticed a smile trying to break free from the thin line his chapped lips formed. He moved out of the way just in time to see Ollie get right up to the shore and a sense of epiphany hit him in the chest like a ton of bricks as he faced Ollie’s back.

His mind fought him then, trying to interpose the dream version where he was left only with disappointment and this version, the one that held his younger self. It couldn’t be denied though. This was the seascape on Digg’s book! The same scene, the same sunset, the same everything except there was no…

A head poked out of the surface of the water then and if he’d had a real body to do so he would’ve fallen to his knees right then and there. He would’ve recognized that golden hair anywhere, same with the blue eyes, though they weren’t shielded with glasses, not then. Sure, there were differences between what he was seeing now and what he was used to but there was no mistaking her. He couldn’t. It was her!

“There you are!” Ollie had said happily, with the foam of the water lapping at his boot covered feet and he was rewarded with a smile from **_her_**.

The vision changed then and he found himself on another of his dreams. It was the one where he was crouched on the rock and he prepared mentally for the sudden appearance of the shark. Just like on the shore what he was seeing seemed to shimmer and waver, as if one scenario was fighting with the other for dominance. He saw himself, his Ollie version, crouched by the edge of the rock, looking down and he wanted to pull his younger self back, but it wasn’t like the dream.

He was watching something circle the rock, there was no JAWS like fin announcing impending doom. He turned his attention to the water, fearing for a moment that he’d cause the shark to appear but the waters only showed him the partial view of a silhouette with a vivid humming bird green tail. He followed with his eyes until he was facing Ollie’s back once more and then watched, somewhat amused, as the playboy landed on his butt when a tiny blonde head surfaced from the water, the waves lapping at her chin; the golden, and light blue, strands pooling and waving with the coming and going of the sea.

Just like that the scenario changed again and to his horror he found himself underwater. Only this time there was no Ollie. He wasn’t a spectator this time around. No. This time it was just him, struggling against the bind on his leg, his body reacting in instant fear because since the ship wreck he really hated swimming, he avoided it at all costs, let alone being trapped underwater without means to escape.

He tried his best to yank his leg free, using his considerable strength, which Ollie had lacked, but to no avail. His lungs started to burn in his effort to hold his breath for far too long and in panic he looked around to see if he could use anything nearby to set himself free. That’s when he saw it…

No, not it, he saw **_her_**.

He saw her and this time around he didn’t turn away, he knew that in reality her approach had caused him to frantically try to get free because he’d though she was a danger of the deep coming to get him. But not this time; this time he watched as she gracefully swam to his rescue at full speed. Arms held tight by her sides, hair trailing behind, with her powerful, and beautiful, tail propelling her until she was right there in front of him.

There was no hesitation on her part. No thought to be had. He felt her hands on his face and then her lips were on his. He didn’t yell in surprise, as he’d done the first time around, this time he’d gasped in appreciation of her gesture and just like the time before she had granted him the gift of her breath. When his hands landed on her arms the hold was tight, just like before, but for different reasons. This time around he wasn’t trying to push her away; on the contrary, he wanted to keep her from breaking the connection.

He surfaced from his meditative state with a deep intake of breath and the headache doubling in power.

“Felicity…” he mumbled, barely able to form the words, the mere use of the muscles of his face to enunciate it was agony.

He let the candle burning and carefully laid himself on the cold basement floor, closing his eyes and blindly searching his jean pockets for his cell phone. Once he had it out he brought it as close as he could to his face and hit one of the speed dial contacts as well as the speaker phone option.

His memories of the woman that had sat before the computers that stood not that far away from him now and the scenarios that he’d seen in his head while meditating were conflicting to say the least. It was Felicity, all right… but not. Felicity didn’t have a tail! Mermaids were extinct! Everyone knew that, they had been gone for a few centuries now. But then, if that was true how did he explain having seen her on the island? Her having saved him?  

No. She’d saved him, hadn’t she? She’d admitted as much during the snippets of conversation in his head. She’d been there for him even before she was his girl Wednesday! And it had been her. There was no question about it. There just wasn’t! The more he thought about it the more the headache seemed to get worse, making him wonder for a moment if he’d somehow gotten a head injury he didn’t remember; which would explain what was going on in his head regarding mermaids and all those flashes of memory that were yet didn’t seem to quite be. He had to get to the bottom of this. He had to understand what he’d seen, what he’d heard. He had to.

And there was just one person who could help him with that.

“The number you have dialed is no longer in service...”

No. That couldn’t be right. He disconnected the call and tried it again. The same message came through the speaker on the phone loud and clear.

Getting to his feet with some difficulty he headed for the stairs of the Foundry, using and re-using the speed dial button, over and over again. The answer was the same. The phone number was no longer in service. That couldn’t be though. Felicity was never without a phone!

He hailed a cab not far from Verdant and gave the driver the address to Felicity’s place. Resting his head back on the seat, trying to let the movement of the cab lull him into a stupor that would help keep the stabbing pain in his brain away but it was to no avail. The ride was short and he thanked whatever God there was for that because his patience was not just thinning, it was completely gone by the time that they’d made it there.

He needed answers.

Getting as close to her building as his patience allowed due to the traffic he made the cabbie stop a few cars back and let him out at the curb, paying the man without even looking to see how much he handed him he climbed out of the car and headed for the building. Just as he had placed a hand on the railing to the steps the doors opened and out came the woman he wanted to see, escorted by an older blonde and a man in a suit that screamed bodyguard.

“Felicity.”

The trio stopped at the landing before the steps, the older woman taking a closer step towards the younger blonde while staring Oliver down with mild interest but otherwise cold eyes. He didn’t have much time after that to know what was happening, the whole world seemed to tip on its axis then and he found himself clinging to the railing to hold himself up, the pain in his head exploding in a measure that actually made him groan.

“Oliver!”

There it was. She was the voice in his head. The voice in his ear when he went out in the field; a sort of conscience that had forced him to find another way when all he knew was violence and death. It was her. It’d always been her.

Her voice reached him but where it should’ve been a balm to him, as per usual, it made a fresh burst of pain bloom in his head so completely that before he knew it his legs had given out from under him and he was kneeling on the ground, clutching at his head with both hands. A strong arm, an unknown, banded about his waist but he found his body would not respond to his commands to dislodge the perceived threat by any means necessary, instead the last image to register in his brain was the stricken look on Felicity’s face as she was held back by the other blonde before darkness overtook him.

He didn’t know how long he was unconscious nor why it happened in the first place. All he knew at the moment was that the pain in his head was finally gone. He came around slowly and without opening his eyes. He made a mental check of his body finding himself unharmed but not able to move, even if he couldn’t find restraints in any of his limbs. His body felt extremely heavy rooted to the floor where he was laying. And so did his mind; the memories that seemed so elusive before coming back full force without the distortion from before.

Felicity rescuing him from the Gambit.

Felicity helping him against the shark attack that almost was.

Felicity on the island shore waiting for him.

Felicity telling him that he couldn’t tell anyone else about her.

Felicity tending to his wounds.

Felicity washing away the blood from his hands, face and hair after his first kill.

Slade arriving at their cavern and Felicity fleeing upon being discovered by another human.

Felicity in the office at QC, talking to his picture with a sadness that shouldn’t have been there if he’d been a stranger to her.

Felicity at her cubicle in QC, with a red pen between her lips the first time he’d ‘met’ her.

There were people talking nearby, female voices that he could hear faintly talking to one another as the memories within his mind rearranged themselves, finding their way out from the mental lockbox that had been placed there and to where they were meant to be in the first place.

Felicity’s voice was sounding sad and concerned while the other woman’s held empathy and caring. Nothing like the look she’d given him when he’d first arrived.

“It is done, as you requested of me, Niece.” The unknown woman was saying softly.

“Thank you, Aunt.”

“Your human should be safe now. The others will believe that with the magic weakened as it was his stubbornness allowed him to breach the seal on his own. I have left no trace of my interference so they will neither suspect nor seek to harm him.” There was no room for argument there. “Now, let us leave for the docks. We must be in the open sea before I can work on you.” The woman said. “Then we can go home, the immediate threat to you will be averted and your sequestered time can commence.”

The word ‘home’ made a cold shiver rush down his spine. Felicity had said that word before, using the same intonation as the woman. Back on the island, when he’d ask her where she’d go after he was standing at the shore. Their first conversation assaulted his senses to the point that he almost felt himself back on that cursed beach. That time seeming so very long ago.

‘Home’

A place no human could find. Someplace HE couldn’t find. Where he couldn’t reach her…

NO!

She couldn’t leave. Not now. There was so much he wanted to ask her… to tell her! She just couldn’t.

Panic flooded him. He had lost so much as of late, his mother came to mind, but this loss made him feel as lost as he’d felt on his first days on the island.

He fought to open his eyes then, move, speak, do something, but his body would not respond. His mind, which had been rebelling against him before was fully restored now but the rest of him? It was as if the skin, muscle and bones were disconnected from the brain, like he was frozen in time.

“Yes. I will be as they always wanted me to. My vast knowledge passed onto others while I waste away in a gilded cage.” Felicity scoffed. Frostbite held more warmth than her words did. “I know my sentence well, Aunt, I don’t need to be reminded.” Felicity offered at once.

“And yet you do not seem to learn from your mistakes.”

With a heavy sigh Felicity spoke again.

“For what it’s worth I am truly glad you did this one thing for me.”

“Of course but you would do well to remember that your choices brought you to this moment, child. Do not take your frustrations out on me. I am here only to aid you, even if you cannot see it yet.”

The click of heels nearby told him that someone had come to stand by his prone form. He didn’t know those steps. Their cadence wasn’t familiar to him. There was no trace of mango from Felicity’s shampoo or the light floral scent of her perfume. It wasn’t her standing by him now and he tried again to at the very least open his eyes, to see the woman that was taking Felicity away. He didn’t succeed for the longest time but then his eyelids twitched and he was able to squint.

The woman standing by him looked like an older version of Felicity but where his light was happiness and caring the woman looked severe and detached. She had the same blonde hair, the same light complexion, the same short stature and slim form. Their family resemblance an obvious one. Her eyes were green though, a cold pale jade color that seemed to both pierce and burn as she looked down at him.

He could feel it down to his bones, even if his eyelids had pulled back just enough for a sliver of an image she _knew_ he was looking right back at her.

“I admit, I don’t think I’ll ever understand your reasoning.” She began raking his form with her cold gaze as if measuring him (probably for a coffin if she had her way). “This human of yours, he has given you so very little yet you show him mercy and seek his well-being above all else; yourself included.” She retreated from him then and with the corner of his eye he could see Felicity join her close to the door.

“No matter; if you won’t help yourself then I will force the help onto you.” She sighed then, placing both her hands gently on Felicity’s shoulders. “I refuse to lose you as I did your mother, Niece. You remind me so much of her. Unfortunately both of you share a flaw that proved your undoing. Such a kind heart you have.” She shook her head at that “When we reach the open sea my magick will be replenished. I will put a seal on you then. Do not worry, I will not take the memories of him from you completely but you and I both know what I need to do in order to keep you from sharing your mother’s fate. Then we will head home. Once the sun sets and your sentence begins we will have no reason to worry. Now, let us go. It is your time to return to the sea, child.”

“Yes, Aunt.”

She turned to look at him then, her bright blue eyes so full of sorrow that he pushed himself to the limit, forcing his body past the paralysis of the spell cast upon him by sheer determination and stubbornness just enough to lift his heavy arm off of the floor, reaching for her. Those haunted eyes held so much pain. So much heartache. It was wrong. She wasn’t supposed to look at him like that.  Not with a clear as daylight look of defeat and goodbye. She equaled happiness, comfort and all that was good. She was hope not pain. Never pain. And never a true goodbye.  

Sure, she’d said she was going home but even then, in the back of his mind, and within his heart, he’d thought that if push came to shove he could’ve called to her for assistance. There was a glimmer of hope that they’d see each other again, even if she was in the other side of the country or the other side of the world. It didn’t matter. If the need arose he would’ve called her and she would’ve helped any way she could, maybe even coming back to Starling to get it done, because that was just the way Felicity was.

That wasn’t the case. Not by a long shot. She was leaving for good.

The woman turned her around before she could see his beckoning and was leading her out the door with an arm draped over the younger blonde’s shoulders, the bodyguard following behind.

It was too late.

As the door closed behind them, leaving him alone with nothing but silence and a heavy heart Oliver had both answers and more questions. He remembered her now. He remembered everything! Felicity was going back home, back to the sea, where he wouldn’t be able to reach her. She was leaving to go serve a sentence that more than likely came down on her because of him. She’d never out right told him that she wasn’t meant to interact with humans but against all popular belief he could read between the lines.

He had to do something, before they left the building, before the got to the car, before they got on their way towards the docks, before she was gone for good! Dropping his arm he used it to try and push himself off the floor, the heaviness was still there, lingering on his body but he pushed harder until he was sitting up. A few minutes later, which felt like years, he was crouching. Then he was standing, feeling as if he was carrying triple his own weight on his frame but standing all the same.

Fishing his phone out of his pocket he used the other Speed dial contact on it and held the device to his ear, stumbling out of the apartment, down the emergency stairwell and out onto the street as fast as he could. There was no sign of the trio he needed to follow.

“John. I need your help.”  

Of all the things that Oliver had ever asked his partner this was probably the weirdest. But Digg being Digg he just muttered a low swear word before asking where Oliver wanted to be picked up at. No more questions asked.

His next call was to Roy. He was less easy to deal with. He had a LOT of questions on why exactly Oliver needed him to go to the docks immediately in order to find and keep watch on the one spot in the whole place that was closest to the open sea. Oliver had no patience left to answer his questions. He just growled his instructions at the young man and then hung up the phone, trying his best not to throw the device down onto the sidewalk in frustration.

Fifteen minutes. It took Diggle fifteen long minutes to get to him and for them to be on their way. That was when the questions started and that was when he got yet another surprise for the day. He’d just finished telling his friend, his very skeptic friend, that their partner was a creature of the sea and the reply had been something that Oliver hadn’t expected.

“That explains a lot, actually.” Diggle was saying, maneuvering the car with expertise through traffic, fast enough to get them to their destination as soon as humanely possible but without getting them into a wreck, or attracting the unwanted attention from the authorities.

“What do you mean?”

“Mythical’s are not as unheard of as you think, Oliver. And not all of them adhere to the ‘don’t let the humans know we exist’ thing. The ‘no interaction with humans’ rules are mostly for those who can’t walk freely amongst men without being scorned. Some races actually love interacting with the humans.” The man began to explain. “I wouldn’t be here if my great grandfather hadn’t gotten the hots for a dryad God knows how many decades ago. Got them crazy kids to thank for my innate green thumb and tree trunk like arms. Who knows, maybe if you get your head out of your ass you and Felicity’s kids could be Olympic swimmers or something.”

Oliver’s cell phone disrupted his state of shock. Pulling it out of his jacket pocket he swiped the screen to accept Roy’s call and hit the speaker option so Digg could hear too.

“You’re on speaker phone Roy. Talk to me.”

“So… is there a reason why you sent me to watch from a distance as Blondie here strips down to her birthday suit along with an older version of herself? Because I gotta say, I didn’t think you’d be thrilled with sharing THAT mental picture with oh I don’t know, anyone sounds like the right choice for a word.” The young man said at once “I really didn’t ever want to see that much of her, dude. Oh and there’s a guy with them that looks like a bodyguard, he’s keeping watch of the surroundings. Oh, not anymore hold on, he’s taking their clothes now, putting them in the car they arrived in. Seriously? What kind of recon do you have me doing..?” There was an intake of breath on Roy’s part. “Uh… guys? It’s the middle of November and they both just jumped in the water.”

“Fuck!” Oliver roared.

Before he could toss the phone Digg grabbed it from his hand.

“We’ll call you back Roy. Don’t engage.” The man ordered and ended the call.

This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be how it all ended. Not like this!

“What now, Oliver?” Diggle asked.

They were only a few minutes from the docks. A few minutes from where she was and they might as well have been on the other side of the state. The answer came to him in the least expected way. He pointed to an upcoming entrance.

“There.” He said feeling a glimmer of hope within his heart.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Diggle’s voice was incredulous but the plan was already forming between them, even if words were not exchanged.

Another ten minutes, a hurried call to Roy to pinpoint his exact location on the docks and they were truly on their way. Having a green thumb was just one of John Diggle’s secret abilities. Helicopter flying was another. The helicopter swooped past the docks and off, high enough to be steady but close enough to the water so that Oliver could keep an eye on the surface. The minutes that ticked by were tense, to say the least. They didn’t talk to one another for a time. Even though he was keeping an eye on the controls Oliver could tell that Digg was also looking at the water for any signs of their friend.

It came in the most unbelievable way. If they hadn’t been paying such close attention they would’ve missed it. There was a small pod of grey whales making their way in the water when a flash of light blue caught Diggle’s attention off to the side of one of the great mammals.

“There!” He said, pointing with one of his hands “That’s no whale or calf, man.”

It was a tail, a sky blue tail, very much like the low lights he could remember on Felicity’s hair on the island, barely skimming the surface of the water and Oliver’s heart skipped a beat when he was able to make out both silhouettes. Both with blonde hair, one blue tail one green.

“Cut ‘em off!” Oliver ordered getting the headset off and unbuckling himself from the seat.

“What then?” Digg asked him, getting the aircraft into position a few hundred feet in front of their ‘targets’ but Oliver was already moving, opening the side door to the helicopter he waited for Digg to get the bird situated and steady before jumping out.

He adopted the correct position for water entry from above, using A.R.G.U.S training taken from the Coast Guard rescue swimmer protocol. Feet first, body straight as an arrow (no pun intended) arms crossed over his chest. And in that moment it didn’t matter that he hated the water, that he absolutely abhorred swimming; it didn’t matter that the huge animals in the water could kill him with a misplaced swipe of a tail or fin just by him landing too close to them. Nothing mattered but getting to her and getting her to stay.

There was a moment of disorientation as he entered the water. His fear of the ocean after the Gambit trying to climb from within the depths of his mind and push him into instant panic. He didn’t have time to give into that though. While underwater he turned in a full circle, trying to pin point Felicity’s location, to go towards her but before he could do that one of the whales from the pod came at him from below, heading towards the surface and as an obstacle he didn’t pose much of a threat.

Then he was moving, but it wasn’t him. Not really. There was a shimmer of blonde, blue and green on his peripheral vision for a second then a body was crashing against his with force and speed. Slim yet strong arms went under his, holding onto him till they were chest to chest. He held on. She maneuvered both their bodies with uncanny fluidity away from the surfacing mammoth, shifting them downwards in a corkscrew motion that would’ve made anyone else dizzy before settling them both upright. He pulled back enough to look at her face, the burning on his chest both from joy and lack of oxygen. She was moving them again, away from the whales and towards the surface which they breached not that long after. He sucked in air heavily, still holding onto her for dear life.

“What the hell, Oliver!?” she yelled “Are you TRYING to get yourself killed? What is it with you and getting into dangerous situations with sea creatures?!” It took a moment for the sounds of the hovering helicopter to register in her mind. “Did…Did you just seriously jump off a helicopter?”

“I don’t want you to go.” He croaked out finally holding her upper arms with both hands.

A few feet away another blonde head peeked out of the water, keeping her distance but well within ear shot.

“Oliver.” Felicity began with a heavy sigh. “I can’t stay. My time on the surface… it’s done. It’s part of the contract.” She explained while motioning towards the sinking sun in the horizon before using that same hand to stroke his stubble covered cheek. “Today was my last day. I have to go back home.”

“But that’s not your home, Felicity!” He growled

This couldn’t be how it all ended. Not when he’d just gotten her back!

She smiled at him then, a small sad smile that made his heartstrings pull painfully in his chest. Before he could realize it she was enveloping him in a full body hug; her arms wrapping around his shoulders tightly and even her tail circled one of his legs. He held her just as tight in his arms, turning his head to bury his face into her blonde and blue hair, the scent of her shampoo mixed with sea salt water drifting deep into his lungs with every breath he took.

“Please, Felicity.” It was a whisper that threatened to shatter them both.

“I know I told you once that there’s always another way. But not this time. There is no other way.” She replied against his neck, her words cracking at the end of the statement. “My fate sealed the night I saved you. I knew there’d be consequences but there really was no choice to make, Oliver. And I don’t regret it. Don’t you dare blame yourself for this or even think that I do, because I don’t. I don’t regret meeting you, not for a single second. Please, please, remember that.” She admitted pulling back enough to press her forehead against the front of his throat “You have to let me go now.”

“No.” His reply was instant and instead of loosening his grip on her he tightened it. “There has to be a way for you to stay.”

“Niece.” The older mermaid called from her place a few feet away, glancing meaningfully towards the almost completely set sun in the horizon.

“You can’t take her!” Oliver growled at the woman, wanting nothing more but to put several arrows in her chest if it meant he got to keep Felicity with him.

“Oliver.” Her hands on his shoulders pushed just a little drawing his attention back and into the depths of her blue eyes. “It’ll be ok.” She reassured him “You have Diggle to keep you in the straight and narrow. You have Roy to keep an eye on and you have to find Thea.”

This was it. The goodbye that he wanted desperately to avoid.

“No, Felicity.” He murmured shifting his hold to cup her face with both hands, pressing his forehead to hers. “What about you?”

“You’ve always had me.” She whispered pressing against his forehead with her own in a cat like fashion, her hands fisting the fabric of his jacket. “And now you’ll even remember me for good. I mean, you were supposed to remember me as both me mermaid me and IT me after I was gone, I don’t know what happened that made you go all wonky and start remembering beforehand, that was most certainly not part of the plan, with what seemed to be very painful episodes and the fainting spells and all that but…”

He couldn’t help himself then. No matter what he said to her, it wasn’t enough. He knew he’d never been a man to choose the right words when it counted. Sure, he could’ve charmed the panties off of any socialite before the island with just a smile and a wink but this was Felicity, his Felicity, that had never worked on her and now when he needed the right words the most he was at a loss. So he did the one thing he could think of, the one thing that he’d been dying to do.

“Felicity…” her name was a caress of a whisper before he eclipsed the distance between them and pressed his lips to her babbling ones in a seal of both joy and heartache.

In a way it reminded him of the kiss in the cavern but where there had been hesitation on his part then there was none now. His hold on her was completely different, for one; where he’d barely held her then he made sure to hold her against him now. A hand firmly entangled with her blonde tresses while the other arm secured her form to him at the waist. He poured everything he had into that one opportunistic touch of lips. It was all the longing he’d ever held for her, all the need he’d hidden from her, all the love he’d tried to kept at bay for far longer than even he realized.

And she reciprocated in kind. Lips scorching each other, tantalizing nips of teeth and unexpectedly a shy brush of the tip of her tongue against the seam of his lips, just as he’d done to her on the island, that had him opening for her willingly; entwining his own tongue with hers not in a duel but in an embrace long awaited. Tasting her truly for the first time was a ray of hope, of light and goodness and the growl of satisfaction vibrating from deep within his chest burst his long formed emotional walls, shattering his doubts.

It was her. It had always been her.

“Please, Felicity.” He murmured against her lips “Stay with me.”

“Choose her.” They both turned to face Felicity’s aunt who was now closer than before but still at a safe distance. Her green eyes which had been so cold and dismissive before were now pleading.

“There’s no choice to make.” He replied at once before turning his attention back to the blonde in his arms. “I’ll always choose you, Felicity.” He said sealing his words with another kiss, fearing that this could very well be his last chance.

And as the sun finally sunk below the horizon the terms of both the contract and her sentence were fulfilled. Her human, against all odds, had chosen her; not only freeing her but also changing her. A small gasp of surprise erupted from her, forcing her to part from his lips. There was a confused expression on his face for a moment and then she was hugging him again, burying her face against his shoulder and he couldn’t help the innate reaction on his part. He held her, even tighter than before, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head.

It dawned on him then, as he held her to himself, that it wasn’t a single appendage wrapped around his lower body anymore. Pulling back just enough to study her he noticed that the blue highlights on her hair seemed to have faded into a regular, human, blonde color. The groupings of scales she’d held on her shoulders had disappeared too. But more importantly instead of a tail of hummingbird green color with a single fin she had legs. Long, shapely, beautiful legs that she had wrapped around his waist.

“You might want to look up here now.” Her voice wasn’t chastising, it sounded happy and she used her forefinger to point at her face “Because apparently not only did you choosing me free me from a lifetime of being a hermit scribe but also turned me into a human… a very scale free naked human.” She offered, biting her lower lip afterwards, blushing prettily.

And for the first time in what felt like forever Oliver Queen laughed, truly happy.

 

The end.


	4. Mermaid Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An alternate ending where Oliver doesn't get his memories back until it's too late...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had been toying with the idea of an alternate ending for this story for awhile, since I posted the last chapter if I'm honest. I was going to go full dark buuuuuut someone decided to steer me away from the probable lynching that would've caused.
> 
> I hope you guys like it!
> 
> As per usual, I don't own Arrow. All mistakes are my own. No Beta.

Oliver Queen’s heart broke on a Tuesday.

 

An ordinary day that was turned extraordinary due to loss.

 

Oliver had been alone in the foundry when it happened. He’d just finished up yet another rep on the salmon ladder, trying to keep his eyes from straying to the now empty computer desk where the team’s IT genius used to be, then he was on the floor. His knees cracked painfully on the cement, his hands clutching at the sides of his head as he was assailed with pain. Though it was only a few minutes, in reality, it felt like hours. The excruciating pain burrowing deep in his brain, seemingly cracking his mind open and letting memories he didn’t know had been repressed move to the front of his mind.

 

Felicity…

 

The woman who had left the team only a few days before, the woman he trusted, the woman he felt so very deeply for, she was the star of all the memories busting free. The jail where those precious memories of her had been kept before shattered, setting free all sorts of images and emotions he hadn’t realized he had lost, once upon a time.

 

Felicity, kind, beautiful, strong Felicity, with a hummingbird green tail and sky blue highlights woven into her blonde hair. Felicity, with luminous scales on her torso, neck and other scatterings along her upper body.  Felicity, with curious blue eyes free of glasses, naturally pink lips, pearlescent skin and a fear of surface dwellers that did not translate to him...

 

Instinctually he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that regaining those memories of her could only mean one thing.

 

Felicity, both the mermaid and the woman, was lost to him, forever.

 

Home, she had said before she left, with a twinge of sadness to her words. She was going home. And now that he remembered her, from his time on the island, his heart cracked right down the middle for he knew that she had gone back to the world where she had no name, no need for the glasses he’d come to secretly love, the depths where she originally came from and he could never reach.

 

The moment that Diggle arrived at the foundry Oliver had told his friend everything. All of his memories, all of his moments with Felicity from his time before Starling City, every single detail that had returned to him. The man had listened as he ranted and raved, like a lunatic, and when he had run out of words Diggle had shaken his head sadly.

 

“That explains a lot, actually.” he had said “Not all Mythicals are as zealous about their existence anymore, but those that cannot pass as human as easily as others, are forced to certain lengths to protect themselves, Oliver. And before they became extinct, or before they managed to convince humans of their extinction, it was well known that the People of the deep possess magic. They probably locked those memories of her for their protection.”

 

“I would’ve never hurt her, Digg!”

 

“I don’t doubt that, man. All I’m saying is, they probably didn’t see it that way. Now that she’s not here it’s safe for you to remember.”

 

“We need to find her.”

 

“Oliver, if we’re dealing with the situation I think we’re dealing with… we’re not going to find anything.” the man said with another shake of his head.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“The People of the deep, merfolk and sirens alike, have scouts or scribes that come to the surface cloaked in magic. They do recon, of a sort and then they go back. They are ghosts. Think of identities made to order. Once their time on the surface is done there are no traces left.”

 

The weight of truth to Diggle’s words came as a heavy blow only a few days later. Oliver had still fought, tooth and nail, to get the searching done and so they’d gotten to work, calling in a favor from Lyla.

 

Every trace that Felicity Smoak had ever existed had been wiped clean. Her rental agreement had been taken care of, as well as her car and any money she had earned during her time as a human she had added to the accounts she’d set up for ‘Team Arrow’ in case of a rainy day. The laptop with her goodbye video and the explanation about the accounts had been delivered to Diggle’s place during the second morning of their search.

 

Felicity Smoak, MIT Class of 09, was no more.

 

Lyla had a lot of information regarding Felicity’s last steps in the human world, a shocking confession she had made to both Oliver and Diggle while sharing a drink at John’s apartment.

 

She had been there.

 

It seemed that a quick chat with Amanda Waller had secured Felicity the opportunity to return to Lian Yu. Apparently, this was just what she’d wanted. Waller was far more aware of Mythicals than a lot of people, so with the right incentive she’d been convinced of providing the mermaid the allowance she requested. She had asked Felicity to use her hacking abilities, in order to ferret out a mole in her organization, as payment and that was that.

 

It was a task the blond had managed quite easily, it seemed. Waller’s parting words on how ‘it was a shame’ that Felicity’s time in the surface was coming to an end and how ‘she could’ve been so very useful to her’ had not affected the blond as much as the brunette probably wanted.  Then true to her word she had left her at the shore, looking out into the sea.

 

Lyla had remained with her and Felicity had babbled about the fate that awaited her when she returned home. Lyla became acquainted with the term sequestered scribe thanks to the blonde mermaid and her heart tightened painfully when it became obvious that once the sun went down on that last day of Felicity’s contract and the mermaid took the last dive from the surface it would truly be her last.

 

Felicity would never see the unobstructed sky ever again.

 

They had wandered as they talked. All along the shore she had wandered with the Mythical. Felicity had taken her to visit the cavern where her first, and only kiss, had happened. The mermaid had admitted to it in an epic babble, with blushing cheeks and hand gestures. Lyla had led her through a secured path of the forest that was free of landmines, at the blonde’s request. They’d even visited one of the rivers where she admitted to Lyla she had swam upstream in, once upon a time. But with the dying sun Felicity had asked to go back to the shore, to once more look out into the sea.

 

“She told me Lian Yu was unforgiving, yes, but it had been her own private playground once and she was thankful that she actually had the opportunity to see it one last time before her time ran out.”

 

Lyla’s words offered no comfort. As Oliver listened to her tale, sitting on Diggle’s couch with his elbows resting on his knees he felt his heart breaking all over again. She had gone back to the island. His Felicity had gone back to the land of their memories.

 

“She talked about you. I’m not sure if she was aware she was talking out loud.” the woman admitted.

 

Faced with the harsh reality it was only natural that Felicity thought of her boys back in Starling. Of John Diggle’s famous bear hugs and Roy’s smart ass attitude and Oliver… So many thoughts of Oliver that her heart might have cracked in half.

 

It was all so bittersweet.

 

Unknowingly Oliver was the reason for change, the reason she was chosen as a scribe, as the elders would have more than likely passed her over again if it hadn’t been for her interaction with a human; the reason she’d been free in the world of the surface dwellers and the reason she’d be a prisoner in her own home.

 

“She said you saved her.” Lyla admitted softly.

 

“I also damned her.” Oliver muttered grimly.

 

The sun was kissing the horizon when they had arrived back at the beach.  Walking up to shore from the waters, with no ounce of shame about her naked form, was an almost mirror image of Felicity, only older. The woman had ignored Lyla for the most part, barely glancing her way with glacial jade green eyes before settling her gaze on Felicity.

 

“After the woman arrived it was done.” Lyla explained, while John rubbed her shoulder. “I gave Felicity a hug and then, she just took off her clothes and they went back into the sea. They left together.” she explained, getting up from the chair she had occupied, she walked away and came back a moment later. “I thought you might want to keep these.” she offered, handing Oliver a keepsake he never thought he see again.

 

The dual toned glasses felt heavy in his hand, the weight of a life that was now so far away from his reach it might as well had been lost.

 

He tucked them into the inside pocket of his brown leather jacket, the spot closest to his heart and then left the apartment.

 

With a bit of help from Walter and some of the funds Felicity had managed to filter to Team Arrow, with her ‘Hood’ program, Oliver was able to regain control of QC and then the changes started. It was because Felicity believed in him that he realized there was so much more than he could do, as Oliver Queen than just being the Arrow.

 

The company, under his and Thea’s vigilant eye, became a juggernaut in the tech industry while also boasting advancements towards renewable energy. Queen Consolidated regained its charitable side, focusing mainly on organizations that had to do with ocean conservation and environmental consciousness.

 

In 2024, Oliver Queen was 39 years old. A few years earlier he had decided to  pass on his mantle as the Green Arrow onto Roy Harper, his brother in law, but his influence as a champion for cleaner oceans was seen as suspicious when the Sirens tried their rise to power. It had taken the Sirens years to place themselves so deeply embedded in the system that they almost succeeded in bringing several powerful governments under their total control.

 

That’s when the People of the deep, the merfolk of ancient texts, reappeared. The differences between them and their greedy counterparts were obvious and when they allied themselves with the humans and other Mythicals in order to truncate the efforts of the Sirens, using some of their magick to undo the sway Siren’s had in high ranking officials, there was no doubt on whose side the People of the deep stood. The Sirens were defeated a year later and the People of the deep were, for the first time in recent history, seen as heroes.

 

It was just another Wednesday, in 2036, when Oliver received a visitor he did not expect.  With Sara Felicity Diggle earning some extra credit by serving as an intern in QC, as Oliver’s aid, there was never any problems with his schedule. At 19 and a half, she was very proud of that half, Sara was an organization wizard that kept the former ‘always late’ co-CEO in perfect check when it came to his appointments.

 

Until that afternoon.

 

Oliver had been reading some information on his datapad regarding the upcoming board of directors meeting for the next morning when his comm had flared to life with Sara’s voice on the other side.

 

“Mr. Queen? I have someone here that wants to see you. She doesn’t have an appointment but she’s insisting in talking to you, if only for a moment.”

 

“I’m a bit busy right now, Sara. Try to shift my schedule a bit, see if you can make some space for her tomorrow.” he replied, absentmindedly.

 

There was a pause on the other end of the communication unit and then words he never thought he’d hear again happened, barreling straight into his heart.

 

“Um… Uncle Ollie?” Sara’s less than sure voice and the fact that she used his family nickname made him perk at attention. “She says her last name is Smoak.”

 

“Send her in.”

 

He didn’t make the conscious decision to stand yet all the same Oliver Queen, aged 51, found himself standing behind his desk. Though he was no longer in peak physical shape he was a very fit older version of himself, with a bit of salt and pepper to his ash blonde hair and even though the slate gray suit he wore was tailored to perfection he felt inadequate.

 

His palms were moist and he could feel his heart hammering in his ribcage as the door opened. Sara appeared first, opening the door for his impromptu visitor, a blonde followed, stepping into his office and making his breath catch in both surprise and disappointment.

 

She was short of stature, petite, young, with golden blonde hair, light complexion and twinkling green eyes that were similar yet so different from what he’d expected when he heard the last name, Smoak. She wore a mint green blouse and white slacks with golden flats on her feet, her hair loose and curled at her shoulders.

 

She was a younger version of Felicity yet not her at all.

 

“Mister Queen.” she greeted with a tiny nod, approaching him with an outstretched hand. “Thank you for seeing me in such short notice.”

 

He shook her hand slowly, taking in all the details that constructed her face. He could see so much of Felicity in her, yet there were differences. Pain speared his heart when the idea of this being Felicity’s daughter popped in his brain.

 

“Of course, Miss Smoak.” he managed to reply, clearing his throat softly right after. “How can I help you?”

 

Being the good aid that she was Sara had left them alone, in order to give them privacy. After all, Sara Diggle knew all about Felicity Smoak, her mermaid aunt, as it had been her favorite bedtime story when Oliver had babysat his Goddaughter.

 

“I’m here to help you, actually,” the blonde replied with a small smile. “My name is Frieda Smoak.” she said tilting her head to the side in a very familiar motion he hadn’t seen in 20 years “I’m sure you see the resemblance between me and my second cousin, don’t you?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Good. So you know what I am. It’s important that you do.” she said and then looked around. “Could we sit?”

 

“Of course,” he said, shaking his head to get himself out of the daze that threatened to overtake him.

 

He led her over to the small sitting area in his office and once she was seated on the couch he took one of the arm chairs, his gaze not faltering from her for a second.

 

“So you’re Felicity’s second cousin.” he ventured.

 

“Yes. My mother was Felicity’s aunt,” Frieda explained, folding her hands on her lap in an almost regal motion, ankles crossed in the most conservative of sitting poses. “She was also an elder for our people.”

 

“Was?”

 

“Yes, unfortunately my mother was lost to us during one of the battles against the Sirens.” she explained.

 

“I am sorry for your loss.” he replied immediately, surprised that he actually meant it, even though he had never met the woman.

 

“Thank you,” she replied with another soft smile and a small nod. “The reason I am here is because we are trying to correct an injustice done many years ago.” she stated.

 

“We? I’m not sure I follow,” he admitted, undoing the button of his jacket and getting more comfortable on his chair.

 

“Fear, Mr. Queen, kept my people in the shadows of the ocean for far too long. As I’m sure you remember, interactions with humans were highly forbidden and the consequences for such actions were quite harsh. It was considered the highest form of treason.” she explained “After the Siren’s world scale attack and our return from extinction, so to speak, it became obvious  to us that our ways of thinking had not only been antiquated but also detrimental to us, as a whole species. And so a new generation of leaders, elders and counselors was needed in order for us to move forward in this brand new world, where Surface dwellers know our existence to be quite true.”

 

“My cousin, Felicity, she was first a traitor and then became a pioneer or forward thinking.  She was solid proof that Surface dwellers and the People of the deep could not only coexists but form deeper bonds, such as friendship. She was instrumental in the reasoning behind us coming forth to aid the humans during the Siren’s siege of government.”

 

“W--was?” That single word seemed to strangle his voice box.

 

“Oh no! No, no, no! I’m doing this all wrong! No past tense! Definitely not past tense! Well, technically, yes past tense, as in that’s what she did then, a few years ago I mean, but that doesn’t mean she’s gone. No. She’s very much alive, I didn’t meant to say she was, you know…shwick”  the word barrage was followed by a comical interpretation of the ‘knife to the throat’ motion, completed with face grimace and tongue sticking out slightly from her parted pink lips.

 

And it was just such a Felicity thing to do that Oliver couldn’t help but chuckle, his eyes misting up and his heart blooming with hope.

 

“So she’s...ok?”

 

“Yes. She’s perfectly fine.”

 

“You’re a lot like her, aren’t you?” He asked.

 

“I am.” Frieda replied with a few nods of her head, taking a deep breath before continuing. “Mr. Queen, you have been an example on many of our discussions. You knew of us, of our existence and you never once revealed our secrets to those who would seek to harm us because we are different. On top of all that, you have used your vast influence and your wealth to make sure the ocean is cared for in ways that no one had ever done before; whole species that were endangered, saved by your doing, lives, so many lives were saved. You’re a hero, just like she said you were.” she said, eyes gleaming with both pride and gratitude.

 

“Which brings us to this moment. My cousin, during our time of need, rose from her station as I said. From a sequestered scribe to a freedom fighter of sorts. And her beliefs made our advancement possible. The only reason she stayed was because her people needed her.”

 

“That sounds like Felicity.” he offered, swallowing thickly.

 

“Yes, it does. She has led us to a new era and now, after all her years of first servitude and then service, she wants to be free of the burden of leadership.” she explained, straightening her shoulders. “Which is why she has appointed me as her successor. When I return to the ocean, tomorrow, it’ll be the last day of her reign as leader. She plans to retire to the surface and she has asked me, as a personal favor, to seek you out. To ask, if you would be willing...”

 

“Yes.”

 

She blinked a few times at the immediate answer and then the controlled smile on her face evolved into dazzling proportions.

 

“You love her still.” It wasn’t a question.

 

“I do.” he admitted with a solemn nod of his head.

 

“Good.” she said with another nod. “She ruled alone, you know? Very much like you, in a way. She refused to take a consort in order to garner favor or power. I think it’s time that you both find some well earned solace from that loneliness.”

 

When she got to her feet Oliver followed her motion and stood as well, looking down at her from his height.

 

“When will she be back?” he asked.

 

“Two days from tomorrow. She said you would know where to meet her?”

 

“Lian Yu.” he murmured softly.

 

“Hmm, indeed.” Frieda offered with a nod. “And some People of the deep thought you were only a pretty face.” she added, eyes twinkling with mirth and a grin tugging her lips. “We will see each other again, Mr. Queen.” she said, heading towards the doors without another word.

 

The moment the door closed behind her Oliver had pulled out his cell phone and called Lyla Diggle, mother to his Goddaughter and Head of ARGUS.

 

Three days later, standing on the same shore in Lian Yu where she had taken him, after she saved him from a shark attack, Oliver waited. Lyla had granted him access to Lian Yu and they had cordoned off that part of the island so there would be no prying eyes for their reunion.

 

The sun had barely risen and the air was cold around him, making him bury his hands on the pockets of his peacoat. Yet, he waited. He didn’t have to for long. Several meters from shore; to the right of his vision, a blonde head broke the surface of the choppy waves. And for a moment there was peace, she simply bobbed on the waves, seemingly looking up at the sky. He understood, after years and years of nothing but the depths he couldn’t hold it against her to want to look at the sky once more.

 

Approaching the surf until his boots were being lapped at by the foam he watched her watch the sky in silence, then her head turned and even with the distance between them she saw the smile he’d been dreaming of for twenty years.

 

With a healthy dive, her hummingbird green tail flicking over the waves, she disappeared momentarily only to reappear closer to shore than before, the water sluicing off of her body as she emerged, her steps unsure on her newly regained legs. Much like he did she looked older now, with soft laugh lines bordering her pink mouth and small wrinkles on the corners of her eyes, there was even some silver at her temples, yet to him she couldn’t have been more beautiful.

 

He met her halfway, the cold water reaching his knees as he enveloped her in a crushing hug, draping the biggest towel he had been able to find around her naked body while burying his face into the skin of her neck and her damp blonde hair.

 

“Oliver.”

 

And with that single word, uttered softly against his ear, Oliver Queen, aged 51, was whole once again.  

 

Pulling back from the embrace only somewhat he dug a hand into the inside pocket of his coat. The well-known weight of the item that was always kept against his heart soothing him. Just as he now felt whole it was only fair that he gave her the same, so with as little movement as possible, as to not separate from her, he pulled out the glasses he had kept close for almost 21 years, in her absence. Carefully, he unfurled the plastic legs and set the eyewear in place, not quite shielding her blue eyes.

 

“Welcome home, Felicity.” he murmured, cradling the side of her face with one of his hands.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Matty for pushing me to write this story.


End file.
